NCJ Number
128398
Date Published
1987
Length
20 pages
Annotation
The State's Attorney for Montgomery County, Maryland, spoke at the Wyoming Prosecuting Attorneys Association meeting in 1987 on the empirical and legal basis for career criminal programs.
Abstract
Characteristics of career criminals encompass adverse family influences, antisocial behavior, and low socioeconomic status. Key questions for prosecutors in handling career criminals are how prospective offenders can be identified, whether to intervene at the family level or improve the economic status of families, and ethical concerns in intervention when an individual is not charged with a crime. Research indicates a high correlation between career criminals and those who begin to commit crime at an early age and that crime can be reduced by putting career criminals in jail. The most important factors for prosecutors to consider in dealing with career criminals are the seriousness of the charge and the defendant's criminal record. Other factors include whether the defendant was convicted before age 16 or served time in a State juvenile facility, whether the defendant used drugs as a juvenile or in the preceding 2 years, and whether the defendant was employed less than 50 percent of the time in the preceding 2 years. Prosecutors lose cases because of poor witness cooperation, inadequate preparation, and late assignment of cases to deputies. To get the best results, prosecutors need to develop close working relations with the police.