NCJ Number
112226
Journal
Criminal Justice Ethics Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter-Spring 1988) Pages: 19-35
Date Published
1988
Length
17 pages
Annotation
The panel of the National Academy of Sciences that examined the existing research on selective incapacitation concluded that technique has significant limitations and may have only a modest impact on crime rates.
Abstract
The panel was organized in 1983. It examined Peter Greenwood's RAND Corporation study, which reached optimistic conclusions about the possibilities of identifying high-risk, serious offenders, as well as other current research on criminal careers and incapacitation strategies. The panel concluded that identifying high-risk, serious offenders will be impeded for the foreseeable future by the quality of information available to sentencing courts. In addition, the potential impact of selective incapacitation on crime rates is far below proponents' initial estimates. Furthermore, considerations of proportionality and just deserts significantly limit the inequalities in sentencing that may fairly be used for the sake of restraining 'high-risk' offenders. Narrowing those permissible inequalities may, in turn, further restrict the technique's impact on crime. A postscript notes that Greenwood recently published a new report presenting pessimistic conclusions regarding selective incapacitation. 99 reference notes.