NCJ Number
36298
Date Published
1976
Length
100 pages
Annotation
ANALYSIS OF STATISTICS GENERATED BY THE JACKSON COUNTY (MO) PROSECUTING ATTORNEY'S OFFICE PROJECT TO DETERMINE WHICH OF THREE EXPERIMENTAL TRIAL UNITS IS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL AND COST EFFICIENT.
Abstract
THE PROJECT'S PRIME OBJECTIVE WAS TO DETERMINE WHETHER A TRIAL TEAM COMPOSED OF A FULL-TIME SENIOR ATTORNEY, JUNIOR ATTORNEY, PARALEGAL, LEGAL INVESTIGATOR, AND SECRETARY IS A MORE EFFICIENT MANNER OF USING MANPOWER THAN EITHER A FULL-TIME SENIOR ATTORNEY, INVESTIGATOR AND SECRETARY, OR A TEAM COMPOSED OF A PART-TIME PROSECUTING ATTORNEY PLUS A PART-TIME INVESTIGATOR. OUTPUT MEASURES WERE DESIGNED TO TEST HYPOTHESES STATING THAT FULL-TIME ATTORNEYS REQUIRE LESS TIME TO PROCESS A CASE FROM ARRAIGNMENT THROUGH FINAL DISPOSITION THAN PART-TIME ATTORNEYS AND THAT THE AMOUNT OF PREPARATION TIME IS LESS FOR FULL-TIME ATTORNEYS AND THEREFORE LOWER IN COST. DATA INDICATED THAT FULL-TIME ATTORNEYS SHOULD BE ORGANIZED INTO TRIAL TEAMS; THAT THERE WAS LITTLE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TRIAL TEAM AND THE PART-TIME UNIT; AND THAT THE PART TIME UNIT HAD A LOWER COST. IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT THE EXPERIMENT NEEDS REFINEMENT, AND A PRELIMINARY EVALUATION DESIGN IS PROVIDED. APPENDIXES CONTAIN FORMATS AND CODEBOOKS USED BY THE KANSAS CITY TRIAL TEAM LAYOUT, THE ORIGINAL DATA SET, THE EDITED DATA SET, AND THE PROJECT'S INITIAL EVALUATION REPORT.