TOWARD A COMPOSITE INDEX OF CRIMINALITY

Abstract

A provisional but largely successful empirical model is presented which scales the relative seriousness of prior criminal records, reflecting the daily judgements of a large number of practising prosecutors on how they pragmatically rate the seriousness of criminal records. The amount and types of information available in the records kept are found to influence prosecutorial decisions with respect to how serious an offender an arrestee should be considered to be.

Citation

Turner, S.H. and Ratledge, E.C. (1987), "TOWARD A COMPOSITE INDEX OF CRIMINALITY", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 97-104. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb014254