NCJ Number
126662
Date Published
1985
Length
27 pages
Annotation
Data was collected on organization and case management procedures from seven jurisdictions systematically selected to represent the diversity that characterizes career criminal prosecution in metropolitan areas across the United States.
Abstract
Information was gathered through extensive field visits to each program; personal interviews with over 150 prosecutors, judges, law enforcement officials, and defense attorneys; and detailed statistical analysis of 2,234 career criminal cases. The study identified several major distinctions in the approaches that local prosecutors have adopted in the study jurisdictions, namely, program objectives, selection criteria, and program organization and management. Respondents in all seven jurisdictions cited several program objectives: reduce crime; demonstrate to the public a strong commitment to crime prevention; enhance ability to effectively manage the prosecutor's office; and improve performance in terms of prosecution outcomes. Within the parameters of program objectives, selection criteria, program organization, and the approach to managing prosecutorial decisions, specific management decisions regarding how to prosecute target cases must be made. Optional strategies for making prosecutorial decisions at each stage of a case's progress through the courts are identified as are alternative actions at each of these stages and the considerations that may recommend them.