Is Criminal Justice Just?

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Is Criminal Justice Just?
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Outline

• The Cost of the Criminal Justice System
• Equity and Justice

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http//www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/jeeus01.htm
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The number of CJS employees almost doubled, 82-01
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Corrections Outstrips Judicial
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Nominal Dollars
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1992 Cost of Control 93.8 Billion 1993 Victim
Losses 21.5 B 72.9 B 94.4B ( Impact of
Crime On Society lecture) Total 188.2 Billion
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Cost to Victims in US, 1993
Source National Institute of Justice, Victim
Costs and Consequences (1996)
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Damages US Violence, 1993
Source National Institute of Justice, Victim
Costs and Consequences (1996)
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Total Cost (188 B) victim losses(94B)
Control Costs(94 B) Slope -1 Crime Control
Technology loss rateOF where OF f(TC,SE)
Victim Costs
94 B
TC 188 B, 92-93
450
Control Costs
94B
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Total Cost (188 B) victim losses(94B)
Control Costs(94 B) Slope -1 Crime Control
Technology loss rateOF where OF f(TC,SE) If
CJS were efficient, then Crime Control Technology
would be
Victim Costs
CCT
94 B
TC 188 B
Control Costs
94B
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Is the US Criminal Justice System Efficient?

• If you believe US policies are correct then the
  previous slide may represent 1992-93
• If you think the war on drugs is wasteful, then
• There are inefficiencies

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Policy Options

• House arrest for possession of drugs
• Save corrections costs 1/3 state corrections and
  6/10 federal 6.81 1.59 8.4 B
• Decriminalization
• Save federal and some local enforcement and
  local judicial costs as well fed enforcement in
  92 0.617.4B 10.4 B, 3/10 (29.659
  10.052) B 11.9, for a total additional 22.3
  B

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State Prisoners
Federal Prisons In 1996, Drug Offenders
accounted for 60 of Federal Prisoners
Federal Spending on Drug Control 1981 1.5
Billion 1989 6.7 1990 9.8 1995 13.0
2000 17.9 2001 18.1
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Total Cost (158 B) victim losses(94B)
Control Costs(64 B) Slope -1 Crime Control
Technology loss rateOF where OF f(TC,SE) If
CJS were efficient, then possible to save 30 B,
and Crime Control Technology would be different
since OF redefined (no drugs)
Victim Costs
CCT
TC 158 B
94 B
TC 188 B
Control Costs
64B
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Is Criminal Justice Just?
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Los Angeles Times

• Wednesday, November 10, 1999-p. A1
• Garcetti Seeks to Overturn 4 Cases Tainted by
  LAPD
• Thursday, November 11, 1999- p. A1
• Inmate Freed in LAPD Probe
• LAPD Ramparts station
• Officers Rafael Perez and Nino Durden

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U.S. News and World Report 11-9-98

• The Wrong Men on Death Row
• 3517 inmates on death row
• since 1976, 486 executions
• 75 known cases of persons wrongly condemned to
  die
• probability about 2 per 100
• States with mistakes
• Florida 19
• Illinois 9
• Texas 7
• Georgia 6

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Perry Cobb 8 years
Rolando Cruz 10 years
Verneal Jimerson 11 Years
Dennis Williams 16 years
Gary Gaugher 8 months
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Are the risks of mistakes too high?

• Three factors in wrongful convictions
• perjured testimony
• faulty eyewitness identification
• false confessions
• 1 reason for wrongful convictions
• incompetent legal representation
• in 1996 Congress stopped funding legal aid
  centers in 20 states

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Questions About Crime

• Are there Inequities by Income class?
• for victims?
• Are there ethnic or racial injustices?
• for victims?
• for offenders?

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Variation by Region
Controlling for why it happens
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Variation of Victimization with Class and Income

• The Distribution of Income
• California Income 1993
• Number of tax returns by adjusted gross income
  (AGI) class
• US Income

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Average Annual Rate of Violent Victimizations Per
1000 Females
Phillips Lecture 4
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Victimization Rates by Income Class
Source Report to the Nation on Crime and
Justice, Second edition
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Source California Statsitical Abstract
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California Number of Returns by Adjusted Gross
Income, .
Tax Year 1993
3000000
2500000
2000000
1500000
Number
1000000
500000
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
80000
90000
100000
Adjusted Gross Income
.
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CA AGI, Frequency Cumulative Frequency
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US Family Income 1995
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33000
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Equal Distribution of Income
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Uniform Distribution of Income
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US Family Income, 1994
Source US Statistical Abstract
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Figure . Lorenz Curve and Gini IndexPink
Area/0.5
EqualGini 0 Unequal Gini 1
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http//www.census.gov/hhes/income/histinc/h04.html
1993
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Households includes singles and unrelateds
http//www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Gini_supplemen
t.html
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Why is Income Distributed So Unevenly?

• Labor Income is Unevenly Distributed
• Part-time work
• less than 50 weeks per year
• less than 36 hours per week

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Victimization Rates by Income Class
Source Report to the Nation on Crime and
Justice, Second edition
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Census Tracts in Towns in the Boston Area
Housing Value
Crime
Zoned for Lots gt 25,000 Sq. Ft.
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Public Goods and Private Goods

• Private Goods
• consumption uses them up
• what you eat is not available to nourish others
• Public Goods
• consumption does not use them up
• national defense
• safe streets
• educated citizenry

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How Much Government Should There Be?
What is the right mix of public goods and private
goods?
Private Goods
Too Few Public Goods
Optimal Mix
Slope of the Production PossibilityFrontier Marg
inal Cost of Public Goods Marginal Cost of
Private Goods
Public?Goods
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Poverty in the US

• US Government Definition of Poverty
• Subsistence wage 17603 in 2000
• a non-farm family of four
• cost of inexpensive but nutritious food times 3
• assume food is 1/3 of budget
• Trends in Poverty
• Incidence of Poverty
• elderly
• children/families headed by single women
• rural

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Poverty in the United States

• Economic Issues
• Political Issues
• Social Issues
• changing behaviors
• marriage trends
• divorce trends
• births out of wedlock

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Poverty Trends 1959-2000
US Census Bureau Poverty in the United States
2000
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Poverty and Female Heads of Households
US Census Bureau Poverty in the United States
2000
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Poverty and Youth
Lab 10 Children, Poverty, and Politics
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Child Poverty
Poverty in the States .
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Wall Street Journal, Feb. 5, 1996

• Population as a Whole
• Blacks 12
• Drug Users
• Blacks 13
• Arrested for Drug Possession
• Blacks 35
• Conviction for Drug Possession
• Blacks 59
• Prison Sentence
• Blacks 74

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Racial Equity in Sentencing

• Stephen P. Klein, Susan Turner,
• Joan Petersilia
• Rand Study, Feb. 1988

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Business cycles and Racial Disparities in
Punishment

• Samuel L. Myers and William Sabol
• Contemporary Policy Issues
• October 1987

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