Multiple Objective Analytics for Criminal Justice Systems

Gerald W. Evans

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367517342
• eBook ISBN: 9781000352931
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Operations
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Criminal justice systems are complex and difficult to design and operate. This is due to their many interacting parts, and their dynamic and probabilistic nature, as well as their interfaces with other systems. This book reviews the use of analytics to address issues in criminal justice system and discusses the various sources of data associated with the systems.

This book is meant to be used by those who would like 1) an introduction to criminal justice systems and 2) an illustration of how some of the various methodologies of analytics can be used to address specific issues in criminal justice systems.

This book will be of interest to faculty, students, and researchers in schools/departments of criminal justice, law, public affairs, political science, industrial engineering, and management. In addition, the book should be of use to government analysts who study the effects of criminal programs and laws.

1
Criminal Justice Systems in the United States

1.1 Introduction

This chapter provides a definition of crime, as well as a classification of, and the costs for crime (discussed in the next section). This is followed by the third section, which discusses the reasons for crime, and the fourth section, which provides a definition for criminal justice systems, as well as a discussion of laws and processes.

The fifth section discusses data associated with criminal justice in the United States as well as its sources. This section contains a table of crime rates in the United States, starting with the year 1960. A new way of interpreting these crime rates is also suggested.

The sixth section of the chapter provides data which compares criminal justice in the United States to other countries, while the seventh section discusses issues (problems or opportunities) associated with criminal justice in the United States. Finally, the chapter ends with a look forward to the remaining chapters.

1.2 Crime: Definition, Classification, and Costs

What constitutes a crime is something that changes with the law over time. One definition is given by:

Crime is the breaking of a law for which the criminal justice or some other governing authority prescribes punishment. (page 13, Rennison and Dodge, 2018)

One type of classification of crimes is by federal or state. Federal crimes are those that violate laws passed by the Congress; these are tried in federal courts. State crimes are those that violate laws passed by state legislatures, and as such are tried in local courts.

A second type of classification of crimes is by felony, wobbler, misdemeanor, and infraction/violation. Each jurisdiction determines its own subclassifications for felonies and misdemeanors. For example, felonies could be categorized as being of Class A through Class J, from the more to less serious. Misdemeanors could be categorized as being of Class 1 through Class 4, with Class 1 being the most serious and Class 4 being the least serious.

A felony is the most serious type of crime. Conviction of this type of crime will result in a sentence of more than a year in a state or federal prison.

A wobbler is a crime in which the defendant could be found guilty of either a felony or a misdemeanor, depending upon the facts of the case and the elements of the offense. For example, a battery that is impolite, rude, or insulting is a lower-level misdemeanor, but if it causes bodily injury it can become a higher-level misdemeanor; if it causes serious bodily injury it becomes a felony (personal communication with Steven M. Fleece, state of Indiana trial court judge, retired, August 24, 2020).

A misdemeanor is of course less serious than a felony, and conviction on this type of crime will result in a sentence of a year or less in a local jail, suspended on terms of probation. If the terms of the probation are violated, the judge can impose some or all of the suspended sentence.

Finally, an infraction/violation is something like a traffic ticket. It does not result in a jail sentence and is not considered a criminal offense. It can however result in a fine.

The cost to federal, state, and local governments in 2012 for the various functions of criminal justice has been estimated at $280 billion, adjusted to 2016 dollars (GAO Report, 2017). These functions can basically be divided among policing, courts, and jail/prison, including probation services.

These government costs are just a relatively small part of the overall costs of crime. For example, the GAO report referenced above reported that there were four different primary methods for estimating the cost of crime, and that these methods provided the widely varying estimates of $690 billion, $1.57 trillion, and $3.41 trillion as the cost of crime in 2012, again adjusted to 2016 dollars (GAO Report, 2017).

One of the primary reasons for the wide variance in the estimates has to do with how intangible (or nonmonetary) costs are considered. Examples of intangible costs are victim pain, suffering, and lost quality of life; increasing fear in the community; the public’s change in behavior as a result of the fear of crime; lost wages from incarceration; and the psychological cost to the family of the incarcerated. DeVuono-powell et al (2015) discuss the cost of incarceration on families.

Regardless of which estimate is closest to the true value, the cost of crime in the United States is massive. Hence, even small improvements in the design and operation of criminal justice systems can result in sizable savings and improvements in quality.

1.3 Reasons for Crime

Many would label this section as Causes for Crime. However, when one gives the subject some thought, the word Reasons appears more appropriate. A cause is something that leads, with little deviation, to something else, but a reason is a rationale, explanation, or justification for something. For example, one could say that poverty might be a reason for crime, but not a cause for crime. There are many people who grow up in poverty who do not become criminals.

The list of reasons for crime is long, and includes the following: poverty, peer pressure, drug and alcohol addiction, religion, family conditions, the society, unemployment, and deprivation (Top 10 Reasons for Crime, 2019). Other reasons for crime include mental illness, misogyny (in the case of domestic violence), and desire for power, wealth, or opportunity (especially in the case of white-collar crime). Some of these are obviously overlapping in nature. For example, deprivation, unemployment, and poverty would all be strongly associated with each other. Someone who is unemployed may well also be impoverished. Such a person may turn to selling drugs to support themselves financially.

The rationale for being concerned about the reasons for crime is obvious. In general, when these reasons are addressed, not only can crime be reduced, but social conditions in general can be improved. With respect to analysis of the effects of a decision made to improve the criminal justice system, having so many reasons for crime makes this analysis difficult. For example, a portion of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 resulted in the hiring of approximately 88,000 additional police. Judging the effects on crime as a result of this hiring was difficult because of the reasons mentioned above; for example, how much of the decrease in crime during the late 1990s was a result of improving economic conditions, and how much was a result of the increased number of police? This question is addressed in detail in Chapter 4 of this book.

1.4 Criminal Justice Systems: Definition, Laws, Resources, and Processes

There are many different definitions for “criminal justice systems”. These definitions can focus on the functions of the system, the organizations associated with the system, or both. A definition that focuses on the functions is:

A criminal justice system is the system of law enforcement that is directly involved in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing those who are suspected or convicted of criminal offenses. (Criminal Justice System, n.d.)

Since recidivism is a huge problem for criminal justice, the above definition might be thought of...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Author Biography
• 1 Criminal Justice Systems in the United States
• 2 Analytics and Criminal Justice Systems
• 3 Using Multiple Objective ANALYTICS to Address Issues Associated with Criminal Justice Systems
• 4 Using Multiple Objective Analytics to Improve Federal Laws
• References
• Index