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.
Redefining the Career Criminal: Priority Prosecution of High-Rate Dangerous Offenders
NCJ Number
124136
Date Published
1990
Length
92 pages
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
Date Published: January 1, 1990