Police Role in Serious Habitual Offender Incapacitation - A Working Paper (From Dealing With Dangerous Offenders, Volume 2, 1983, by Daniel McGillis et al - See NCJ-92277)

• NCJ Number: 92289
• Author(s): W G Gay
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 31 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Available on microfiche as NCJ-92277. Prepared for the Conference on Public Danger, Dangerous Offenders and the Criminal Justice System, Harvard University, February 11-12, 1982

Annotation

Police resources are currently underused in pursuing career criminal apprehension, and research on the effectiveness of various apprehension strategies is limited and contradictory in its findings; several proposed research projects can contribute to the development of effective strategies for career criminal apprehension.

Abstract

The guidelines of career criminal programs specify four activities of the police that support the prosecutor's program: (1) the rapid identification of career criminals, (2) the collection of criminal history information, (3) the provision of investigative assistance to the prosecutor, and (4) the provision of liaison officers to the court to facilitate judicial processing. The role of the police in career criminal programs has been reactive and passive, however. The Integrated Criminal Apprehension Program has developed guidelines that suggest extending police involvement in the career criminal program by developing a list of serious habitual offenders and distributing it to patrol and investigative personnel. Other suggestions are the development of a crime analysis system to provide operations personnel with crime patterns and suspect information and the prosecutor's providing police with timely and comprehensive feedback on case preparation, status, and disposition. Given the general lack of research on the effectiveness of police strategies in apprehending habitual offenders, there is a need for research on suspect-oriented apprehension strategies, crime analysis system development, narcotics operations as a model for career criminal tactics, intensive case followup, case attrition and degradation, and policy analysis. Thirty-four footnotes are provided.