NCJ Number
217086
Date Published
2005
Length
56 pages
Annotation
This report presents Utah legislators with cost-benefit information on an array of the State's criminal justice programs.
Abstract
The programs that provide significant benefits in relation to their costs are nonprison therapeutic communities; cognitive-behavioral rehabilitation programs that focus on changing attitudes, values, beliefs, and thinking processes that underlie criminal behavior; life-skills programs; and adult basic education. Work release programs, adult boot camps, and adult sexual offender surgical and psychotherapy treatments do not provide sufficient benefits to give Utah taxpayers a good return on their investment. The report advises, however, that the programs are ranked according to a cost-benefit analysis. There may be unrealized social benefits in some programs that have not yet been captured in this study. Those who develop criminal justice intervention programs, however, must recognize that the Utah legislature will determine whether or not to continue the program based on what it achieves in relation to what it costs. The intervention programs examined were designed to reduce the criminal behavior of participants. They were assessed according to their success in reducing the criminal behavior of participants in relation to what the program cost to operate. The study involved a statistical analysis of 309 studies of justice intervention programs. The profitability of a program is expressed in terms of the difference between its results in reducing participants' criminal behavior and the program costs (a ratio of benefits to costs). Future research should expand the scope of this study by collecting information on the costs of crime committed by juveniles and obtaining reports of published research on the effectiveness of Utah-based intervention programs. A 10-item bibliography and appended tables of individual program benefits