National Assessment Program: 1994 Survey Results, Research in Brief

• NCJ Number: 153517
• Author(s): Tom McEwen
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 12 pages
• Publication Series: NIJ Research in Brief
• Agencies: NIJ
• Publication Type: Survey

Annotation

This is a summary of the 1994 National Assessment Program survey, which is conducted approximately every 3 years to identify the most pressing problems facing criminal justice system components at State and local levels.

Abstract

More than 2,500 officials in the criminal justice community participated in this survey. Overall, the survey found that criminal justice directors, like most other Americans, were concerned with violence, drugs, and firearms, particularly as they affected young people, both as victims of crime and as offenders. More than 65 percent of respondents indicated that cases involving violence caused problems in workload management. Drug-related crime caused workload difficulties to an even greater extent than violent crime. More than 80 percent of police chiefs and sheriffs said crimes committed with a firearm contributed to their workload problems. The same officials cited community policing most frequently as their approach to deter crime. Almost three-fourths of the police chiefs had programs for at-risk youths. Respondents also discussed: (1) gang-related crime, both within communities and inside prisons; (2) prison construction to reduce crowding in existing facilities, and the use of work release centers; (3) strategies for recruiting and training officers to work with culturally diverse communities; and (4) information system needs. Exhibits, notes, lists of local and state criminal justice agencies