Question
outline a major criminal justice policy that has affected policing around the country where statistics played a major role.
Describe the policy, the role of the statistics and how strong the data was.
The policy needs to be about ( policies and policing that came about because of the crack cocaine epidemic ), with at least one peer reviewed reference. I do not need a introduction or conclusion.
Answer
Major Criminal Justice Policy On the Cocaine Epidemic
Managing confined population
Jails and prisons are requirements in the Criminal Justice System (CJS). However, they become less efficient and pose little responsibility of rehabilitation if so congested; causing safety problems in these centers and bringing about significant investments by the government. The government should ensure that all people in custody are classified and treated on evidence-based policies. These policies based on evidence provide possible solutions to the problem of prison congestion as they offer sanctions for the inmates depending on their charges. This policy was started as a result of crack cocaine epidemic that saw thousands of people charged and jailed leading to overcrowding in the institutions.
Roles of statistics in the Criminal Justice system
Statistical data plays a significant role in improving the criminal justice policing. The statistics serve as a traverse issue. It makes people comprehend the data for accountability reasons. Accountability convinces people to get real meaning and impact of the system. Among the collected data, the most popular data in the US is the UCR (Uniform Crime Report). This information was gathered in 1930 by the FBI involving statistics on different offenses. These crimes can be classified as violent and property felony. The UCR provides more relevant information especially to researchers to in studying the crime trends. Data in this report helps the media groups to report progression to the citizens alongside the addition of frame of reference to stories. (Colley & Casale, 2014)
Police departments in the US use the National Incident-Based Reporting System to gather information about everything that happened during a crime. The role of this system is to feed the FBI with the information providing a clear view of the offenses.
Below is part of the information/data collected by the FBI
| Drug | Time period | 8th graders | 10th graders | 12th graders |
| Cocaine | Lifetime | 1.6 | 2.7 | 4.0 |
| Past year | 0.9 | 1.8 | 2.5 | |
| Past month | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.1 | |
| Crack cocaine | Lifetime | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.7 |
| Past year | 0.5 | 0.7 | 1.1 | |
| Past month | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.6 |
This data was collected in 2015 showing the tendency in the prevalence of cocaine and crack cocaine for 8th, 10th and 12th graders (in percent). (Volkow, 2015)
Reference
Colley, V., & Casale, J. (2014). Drug Test. Analysis Drug Testing and Analysis. 241-246.
Volkow, N. (2015). National Institute on Drug Abuse. Retrieved April 24, 2016, from the science of drug abuse and addiction: https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/cocaine
The Relationship between Criminological Theory and Statistical Data
