NCJ Number
86885
Date Published
1979
Length
150 pages
Annotation
This series of papers on career criminal programs examines program objectives, selection criteria, prediction studies, age of offenders, prompt identification, program evaluation, crime on bail, and the interactions between components of the criminal justice system.
Abstract
Studies bearing upon selection criteria for career criminal programs are reviewed in one paper to show that arrest record (particularly frequency of arrests), a juvenile record, a history of property crimes, lack of a steady work history, age, and drug and alcohol abuse have a bearing upon recidivism. A review of a national evaluation of career criminal programs indicates that career criminal cases consume five to seven times as many attorney hours as routine criminal cases; however, it was not possible to demonstrate that this increased the probability of conviction or that the convicted offender received a prison sentence. Another paper focuses on the problem of dealing with habitual adolescent offenders, followed by an essay that suggest ways to upgrade identification procedures through improved timely access to positive identification information and criminal history information. One study examines the extent of pretrial criminality while on bail and the options that might be used to prevent such crime. A state-of-the-art survey of present and contemplated programs that target the career criminal for special criminal justice handling is presented in another paper, with attention devoted to setting these programs in an integrated structure. A supplementary workshop paper discusses problems with existing prediction studies and future research needs. References accompany each paper.