Dealing With Dangerous Offenders - Executive Summary

• NCJ Number: 92275
• Author(s): S Estrich; M H Moore; D McGillis; W Spelman
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 35 pages
• Grant Number(s): 81-IJ-CX-0037
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)

Annotation

This document summarizes a report that considers the idea of focusing enforcement and prosecution efforts on dangerous repeat criminals and examines proposed career criminal programs, concluding that such selectivity does have the potential to lower crime, reduce costs, and decrease imprisonment as well as to enhance justice of the system even though risks of potential injustice exist as well.

Abstract

The summary notes the wide appeal of dangerous offender programs and explains their basic rationale. It then discusses the nature of offending and the theoretical objections to selective incapacitation, especially noting the difficulty of identifying the high-rate offender and of predicting the effectiveness of incapacitation. Implications for successive stages of criminal justice system operations are then pointed out; specific recommendations are made for developing a selective focus approach that is just and flexible in response to the latest research results on this, as yet experimental subject. A total of 19 notes are provided.