NCJ Number
84200
Date Published
1981
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This paper analyzes and recommends solutions to the problems of philosophical and operational conflicts between the police, the prosecutors, and the judiciary in Hawaii and the resulting low proportion of arrested persons who are charged, prosecuted, and incarcerated.
Abstract
The attrition of arrests as cases pass through the prosecution and court bureaucracies is part of a much larger process of attrition resulting from the nonreporting of many crimes and police officers' frequent inability to make arrests because of inadequate information. While the failure of most arrests to end in conviction may demonstrate conflict among the goals of various components of the criminal justice system, it may also result from the incompleteness of the information available to criminal justice system personnel. Cooperative planning based on mutual agreement and adequate information is needed. To increase the number of reported incidents which result in clearances, the police could establish priorities for case investigations, develop criteria for the solvability of cases, and give patrol officers increased responsibility for investigation. Law enforcement officers should also recognize their continuing responsibility after arrest and their need to bring cooperative witnesses to the prosecutor. Police and prosecutors need to establish a mutually supportive relationship to reduce the opportunities for attrition indicated by the 1973 data showing that only 289 charges and 158 convictions resulted from a sample of 1,161 reported violent crimes. Prosecutors in each county should conduct periodic training sessions for both patrol officers and detectives. Career criminal programs should be targeted on felonies, particularly burglary, robbery, larceny, misdemeanor drug offenses, and assault. Hawaii's career criminal program should be reassessed to determine whether its selection criteria are consistent with the results of recent research.