NCJ Number
90509
Date Published
1983
Length
31 pages
Annotation
In focusing on operations-research and systems-analysis approaches to the criminal justice system, this study portrays a method for making optimum choices at various points in criminal justice processing.
Abstract
The perspectives of operations research and systems analysis are centrally concerned with decisions involving choices among sets of alternatives; thus, the decisions made about the design and operation of the criminal justice system and the decisions regarding the treatment of persons under the system's control can be of major concern to practitioners of operations research and systems analysis. The decisionmaker at each step of criminal justice processing must choose among alternatives, taking into account the following four components of the measure of effectiveness: (1) crimes avoided by incarceration, (2) reduction in recidivist crimes after treatment, (3) incremental crimes avoided by general deterrence, and (4) incremental operating costs incurred. This study explores the nature of the choices to be made at the decision stages of bond setting, prosecutorial review, sentencing and treatment, parole granting, and violation review, based on plausible assumptions on functions included in the measure of effectiveness. Within the framework developed, alternative structures and functional relationships can be introduced, and the consequences of each of these can then be explored. The debate then shifts from the desirability of one or another decision to a question of the nature of the causal relationships between decisions and consequences which can then be tested empirically. Tabular and graphic data, mathematical equations, and 11 notes are provided.