Sources of Data That Identify and Measure the Impacts of Organized Crime

• NCJ Number: 95266
• Author(s): N Parisi
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 29 pages
• Grant Number(s): 80-IJ-CX-0066
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Corporate Author: Temple University
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Existing data bases do not include measures of the impact of organized crime on communities, businesses, and government, but most systems could remedy this deficiency without major changes in their data collection methods.

Abstract

With regard to community measures and quality-of-life measures, public opinion polls could add questions on organized crime's impact, since they already ask about other aspects of crime. Criminal justice information systems could narrow or add categories to isolate organized crime cases. Other sources include local public opinion surveys and national self-report surveys on specific topics such as drug use. Changes in community stability factors, such as employment patterns and neighborhood demographics, could reflect the presence of organized crime, and such data generally are available for individual jurisdictions. Although systematic investigation into organized crime's effect on legal businesses poses many problems, possible information sources are city planning surveys, professional organizations' data on business practices, and bankruptcy filings. Police could develop a data base of their electronic surveillance and informants' data using standardized criteria. Researchers could examine police files, wiretaps, and presentence reports, but the effort would be time consuming and not provide continuous data. In the governance area, candidates' financial records, voting patterns, and the appointment process could be examined. Organized crime's impact on the criminal justice system can be calculated by the number of personnel assigned to organized crime, the existence of police corruption, and a comparative study of case flows. Self-report surveys of criminal justice personnel and surveys of residents' attitudes toward the police would be useful. Several existing data bases collect relevant information on city and State governments. In lieu of these alternatives, there is always the option of creating a separate data system on organized crime. The paper contains 42 footnotes.