Systems Analysis and the Criminal Justice System

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Abstract
The Science and Technology Task Force of the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administra tion of Justice (hereinafter referred to as the National Crime Commission), as one of its forward-reaching endeavors, exam ined how science and technology might contribute to the control of crime and to the operations of the criminal justice system. This paper reports on some studies concerning the potential role of systems analysis. Alternative technological investments by police departments are compared with a model of the apprehension process. Bottlenecks in moving cases through a court are identified through the use of a computer simulation of the court. A model of the total criminal justice system raises basic questions about the escalation of serious ness of crimes in criminal careers. Analyses of data on arrest trends show that about half of the young boys in the United States will be arrested at some time in their lives. These illustrative studies show considerable potential for more wide spread application of systems analysis throughout the criminal justice system.

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