Redefining the Career Criminal: Priority Prosecution of High-Rate Dangerous Offenders

• NCJ Number: 124136
• Date Published: 1990
• Author(s): M Chaiken; J Chaiken
• Length: 92 pages
• Grant Number(s): OJP-86-C-002
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)

Annotation

This study examined official record data available to prosecutors in two jurisdictions to learn which items of information most accurately identified offenders as high-rate (committing crimes frequently) and dangerous (committing violent crimes).

Abstract

Findings indicate that long-term persistent offenders may or may not be high-rate dangerous offenders. Habitual criminality should not be confused with high-rate dangerous criminality. While some existing guidelines for identifying high-rate dangerous offenders are valid and useful, greater accuracy may be obtained through a two-stage screening process. Once a group of high-rate offenders was identified, the subset of high-rate dangerous offenders could be identified using a small number of criteria that include elements of the instant crime. Several factors which are commonly perceived as indicative of high-rate dangerousness in fact proved not to be and, in some cases, were counter-indicators. 1 figure, 3 tables, 19 notes, 13 references, appendix.