Selecting Career Criminals for Priority Prosecution, 1984-1986: Los Angeles County, California and Middlesex County, Massachusetts (ICPSR 8980)
Version Date: Jan 12, 2006 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Marcia R. Chaiken
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08980.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
Collection of these data was undertaken in order to develop offender classification criteria that could be used to identify career criminals for priority prosecution. In addition to the crime records obtained from official sources and defendants' self- reports, information about prosecutors' discretionary judgments on sampled cases was obtained from interviews of prosecutors and case review forms completed by attorneys. Respondent and nonrespondent files, taken from official court records, contain information on current and past records of offenses committed, arrests, dispositions, sentences, parole and probation histories, substance abuse records, juvenile court appearances, criminal justice practitioners' assessments, and demographic characteristics. The prosecutor interview files contain variables relating to prosecutors' opinions on the seriousness of the defendant's case, subjective criteria used to decide suitability for prosecution, and case status at intake stage. Information obtained from prosecutors' case review forms include defendants' prior records and situational variables related to the charged offenses. The self-report files contain data on the defendants' employment histories, substance abuse and criminal records, sentence and confinement histories, and basic socioeconomic characteristics.
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Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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In the self-report surveys of defendants, multiple indicators were included to assess reliability of responses. Data on Los Angeles nonrespondents were also collected to examine the possible response bias.
Sample View help for Sample
The sample was a random subset of male priority prosecuted defendants not prosecuted as career criminals but originally charged with such crimes as homicide, burglary, and robbery.
Universe View help for Universe
All males prosecuted in Los Angeles County and Middlesex County for burglary, homicide, and robbery between 1984 and 1986.
Data Source View help for Data Source
official court records, questionnaires, and case review forms
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1989-01-10
Version History View help for Version History
- Chaiken, Marcia R. SELECTING CAREER CRIMINALS FOR PRIORITY PROSECUTION, 1984-1986: LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA AND MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, National Institute for Sentencing Alternatives [producer], 1986. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1988. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08980.v1
2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 10 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.