Tag: Policy

Collecting and Using Data for Prosecutorial Decisionmaking | Urban Institute

This brief summarizes findings from a national survey of state prosecutors’ offices and offers insights for prosecutors, policymakers, and other stakeholders on how prosecutors collect and use data to manage their offices, understand trends, and evaluate their success.
— Read on www.urban.org/research/publication/collecting-and-using-data-prosecutorial-decisionmaking

Is it time to decriminalize prostitution? – Big Think

Today, prostitution is illegal in the majority of the United States, but the New York State Senate has two bills looking to decriminalize prostitution throughout the state. One bill would decriminalize selling sex while maintaining punitive measures on buying or promoting sex. The other would decriminalize the entire sex trade.
— Read on bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/decriminalization-of-prostitution

Police solve just 2% of all major crimes

When police arrest a suspect who is then convicted of the crime, it is a rare exception rather than the rule in the US.
— Read on theconversation.com/police-solve-just-2-of-all-major-crimes-143878

Commentary: How can the Criminal Justice System be this massive trap of Mass Incarceration when only 2% of the crimes that carry the longest prison sentence end in conviction. I’m not sure how plea deals are calculated seeing that 90% of all court cases end in a plea deal. Some of the thoughts here are that criminals are prolific and they eventually get caught, so the arrest of one criminal may stop 20-30 future crimes. Some criminals commit very few crimes and stop either forever or for long periods of time.

NOTABLE: Publications from the links in the article

How Effective Are Police? The Problem of Clearance Rates and Criminal Accountability
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3566383

Most violent and property crimes in the U.S. go unsolved
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/01/most-violent-and-property-crimes-in-the-u-s-go-unsolved/

Alternatives to Arrest for Young People
https://www.nlc.org/resource/alternatives-to-arrest-for-young-people/

Policing by the Numbers – Assessing the Evidence

These statistics could be used as benchmarks comparing across police departments.

This series of charts from CCJ’s Task Force on Policing is intended to inform debates about the future of policing in America. It paints a statistical portrait of trends in key areas, ranging from the size and makeup of the nation’s police agencies to spending, reported crime and victimization rates, people killed by police and officers killed in the line of duty, and public perceptions of and trust in law enforcement.
— Read on counciloncj.foleon.com/policing/assessing-the-evidence/policing-by-the-numbers/