NCJ Number
80321
Journal
Criminology Volume: 19 Issue: 3 Dated: (November 1981) Pages: 449-454
Date Published
1981
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Official reports are the preferred measure of criminal activity when the goal is to understand whether criminal justice clients are less involved in crime in the posttreatment than in the pretreatment period. However, even this preferred method has drawbacks. Data presented here show that there is a recording time lag in official crime data.
Abstract
At times, the gap between time of crime commission and entry of the offense onto the subject's police record is considerable. Data collected in a short span of time after the treatment period are likely to underestimate crime committed in that period. Consequently, findings of change in the level of involvement in crime should be interpreted with caution. (Publisher abstract)