COMPILATION AND USE OF CRIMINAL COURT DATA IN RELATION TO PRE-TRIAL RELEASE OF DEFENDANTS - PILOT STUDY REPORT

• NCJ Number: 339
• Author(s): ANON
• Date Published: 1970
• Length: 237 pages
• Grant Number(s): NI-69-019
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice; US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Sale Source: National Technical Information Service; National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Statistics
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

AN ANALYSIS OF WRITTEN COURT RECORDS OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITY OF PERSONS GRANTED PRETRIAL RELEASE IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DURING 1968.

Abstract

D.C. POLICE, U.S. ATTORNEY (PROSECUTOR), COURTS, BAIL AGENCY, AND THE JAIL RECORDS. DATA COLLECTION FOLLOWS THE FLOW OF A CASE THROUGH THE COURT SYSTEM, FROM FIRST ACTION BY THE PROSECUTOR TO SENTENCING. 910 DEFENDANTS WERE LISTED ON THE ROLLS OF CASES, ONLY 712 WERE ACTUALLY CHARGED WITH FELONY OR MISDEMEANOR OFFENSES FOR INITIAL ARRESTS. 426 WERE RELEASED PRIOR TO TRIAL, AND 47 OF THOSE PERSONS WERE SUBSEQUENTLY REARRESTED ON A SECOND CHARGE OR CHARGES (11.0PERCENT). FOR PURPOSES OF THIS REPORT, PEOPLE ON PRE-TRIAL RELEASE WHO ARE REARRESTED ARE CALLED RECIDIVISTS. SOME 50,000 ITEMS OF INFORMATION WERE PLACED IN THE MEMORY OF A TIME-SHARED COMPUTER SYSTEM. THESE DATA PROVIDE A BASIS FOR ANALYSES OF FACTORS RELATED TO DIFFERENT FACETS OF THE PRE-TRIAL RELEASE QUESTION. ANALYSES WERE CONDUCTED TO FIND CORRELATIONS BETWEEN A VARIETY OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS AND OFFENSES, FOR SUBCLASSES OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITY CATEGORIZED ACCORDING TO FBI CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM AND OF FELONY-MISDEMEANOR INTERACTIONS, AND ROBBERIES. A RECIDIVIST RATE WAS DEVELOPED BASED ON NUMBER OF REARRESTS PER UNIT OF TIME DEFENDANTS WERE ON PRE-BAIL RELEASE. BIBLIOGRAPHY AUTHOR MODIFIED