NCJ Number
81622
Date Published
1982
Length
149 pages
Annotation
This volume focuses on the responses of police, courts, prosecutors, and correctional institutions in 10 large American cities to the growth of crime in the post-World-War-II United States.
Abstract
Data were gathered on crimes and arrests, institutions and policies, and criminal justice expenditures and personnel for the years 1948-78. The phenomenal rise in crime over the past three decades can best be explained by forces operating at the national level -- changing lifestyles and increasing levels of affluence. Although police manpower, expenditures, and activity have expanded over the study period in direct relationship to increases in reported crime, police resources have not kept up with the magnitude of those increases. In a majority of the cities studied, the same pattern holds for courts, prosecutors, and correctional institutions. Although local and State criminal Justice systems have increased their personnel at a rate similar to or exceeding the increase in arrests, the system as a whole did not keep pace with increased demands on it. The study concludes that there is no evidence for the idea that more aggressive policing reduces the offense rate for any particular category of crime. The underlying causes of crime appear to be nationwide in scope; any new techniques for combatting crime may well require resources beyond the capabilities of local governments. Graphs, tables, and chapter references are included; an appendix lists papers and publications of the Governmental Responses to Crime Project.