NCJ Number
216405
Date Published
2006
Length
52 pages
Annotation
This report presents information and data on crime trends and justice patterns in the Chicago metropolitan region examining policy issues and promising practices intended to address problems within the criminal justice system.
Abstract
Highlights from the Index report include: (1) over the past 20 years (1985-2005), the drug arrest rate has nearly tripled in the Chicago region, attributed to the increase in the criminalization of and penalties for drug use; (2) 85 percent of reported crime is property and the majority of that is theft; (3) violent crime has decreased by 52 percent since its peak in 1991; (4) between 1985 and 2005, felony cases filed have doubled, resulting from tougher drug laws; (5) Whites make up 70 percent of those using illegal drugs, but 80 percent of those imprisoned for drug crimes are non-Whites; (6) two-thirds of those committed to the State Department of Corrections are from the Chicago region; (7) Latinos are twice as likely as Whites to go to prison and African-Americans are 10 times more likely; (8) there has been a steady decline in the juvenile crime rate and juvenile prison population since the mid-1990s; (9) nearly one out of every two youth released from prison is rearrested and returned to custody within 3 years; and (10) prisoners are being released at nearly the same rate as they are being locked up. The report begins with a snapshot of the state of crime in the Chicago region and describes the steps from when a crime is reported to the police through arrest, trial, conviction, sentencing, punishment, and release of the offender. It examines various policies and their results by reviewing how the criminal justice systems operate, how many tax dollars are devoted to them, how the money is spent, who goes into the systems, how long they stay, who comes out, and what happens to them when they come out. Figures, charts, and references