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Lawrence Sherman Institute of Criminology University of Cambridge . Al Capone, The Sword of Damocles & the Police: Prisons Budget Ratio . Very Harmful No evidence to prove his murdering Prosecution on tax evasion Died in Prison. Al Capone.
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Lawrence Sherman Institute of Criminology University of Cambridge Al Capone, The Sword of Damocles & the Police: Prisons Budget Ratio
Very Harmful No evidence to prove his murdering Prosecution on tax evasion Died in Prison Al Capone
Average Charges for MURDER or Attempted Murder Within Two Years of Probation Start: Philadelphia .375 High Neither Low .033 .005
Papers Richard Berk, Lawrence Sherman, Geoffrey Barnes, Ellen Kurtz and Lindsay Ahlman 2009 “Forecasting murder within a population of probationers and parolees: a high stakes application of statistical learning” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society) 172: 191–211 Lawrence Sherman (2011) “Al Capone, the Sword of Damocles, and the Police–Corrections Budget Ratio” Criminology & Public Policy 10: 195-206. Lawrence Sherman (2010). Less Prison, More Police, Less Crime: How Criminology Can Save the States from Bankruptcy. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice Video posted at http://nij.ncjrs.gov/multimedia/video-sherman.htm .
Neither Crime nor Criminals Are All Equal in Their HARM • What does it mean to say “crime” dropped? • All crimes are not created equal • Some far more harmful than others • Yet governments publish “crime” totals • Completely unweighted by harm • Total crime down, homicides X 100 • How to interpret?
Crime Harm Index (CHI)(Sherman, 2007) • Tool for combining elements of different weights into a single scale value • E.g., murder = 200, car theft = 5, shoplift = 1 • What is 100 crimes in CHI? Example: 10 murders X 200 = 2,000 50 car thefts X 5 = 250 1,000 shop thefts X 1 = 1,000 TOTAL = 3,250
Cut Costs, Manage Criminals • Stop summing crimes • Start weighing harms • Provide a transparent, total harm “level” • Not a confusing flood of undigested data
Use Crime Harm Index (CHI) • Evaluate national trends in harm levels • Compare police force areas • Make decisions about criminals • Apportion CJ costs in relation to harm prevention benefit
Keep It Simple? • Manage less harmful offenders in communit (key role of police) • Lock up dangerous people forever (main role for prisons) • Keep testing value for money
Apply CHI to Justice • CJ Act 2003 • Judge must assess dangerousness • Take CHI Forecasts Into Account • Early diversion for low risk • Probation on tight license • Certainty, swiftness—not severity
Braggart at King’s Table Not Punished Merely Threatened with Punishment Curbed Behaviour Sword of Damocles
Nieuwbeerta, Paul, Daniel Nagin and Arjan A. J. Blokland (2009). “Assessing the Impact of First-Time Imprisonment on Offenders’ Subsequent Criminal Career Development: A Matched Samples Comparison” Journal of Quantitative Criminology.
Prisons? Police? Probation? Which Can Prevent Crime Better?
Jeremy Bentham Sir Robert Peel Blending Two Thinkers onPrevention
Certainty Celerity (speed) Severity Bentham: Deterrence
Certainty Celerity Cessation: --Stopping the crime in progress Abolished death penalties Australia? Transportation Today Still Possible Peel, 1829
Peel’s Principles 1829 • Minimum Force Necessary • Minimum Cost to Taxpayers • Test of Success: NOT punishment • BUT the demonstrable absence of crime • Prevention, not detection • Management of crime and criminals • Deter, intercept thieves, break up fights • Reserve prosecution for the very worst
Deferred Prosecution You are under arrest We can charge you Put you in Jail But we suspend action So you can go straight Go to drug treatment Get a job Do Restorative Justice Relocate “Turning Point” Plan Or-- we will prosecute Operation Damocles!
Certainty, Swiftness:the Project Hope Example • Hawaii Offender Probation Enhancement • Chronic Drug-Abusing Property Criminals • Drug-Testing as a condition • Failure COULD mean 5 years in prison • Typically failure had not been reported • 5, 10, 15 times—no sanction • 17th time? Or 19th? Or 13th? • Unexpected, sudden, very severe penalty
How Does HOPE Improve, In Theory? • Certainty—call every day, Mon-Fri • Swiftness—Immediate processing of tests Immediate jail time • Severity-------Low at first Steadily rising with repeats
How Does HOPE Improve, In Effects? • Randomized Controlled Trial • Prison Days 50% lower for HOPE • New Crimes 50% lower for HOPE • NIJ to replicate in multiple states
Risk-Based Policy:Foundation of Cost-Effectiveness Pew Trust Report Parole Guidelines on Release Virginia sentencing Guidelines—risk, not desert RAND 1982 Report on Selective Incapacitation Idea rejected by 1986 NAS Report on Error False positives too high for values But prison rate has tripled False positives are embedded in sentencing Actuarial Risk could keep them out, not put them in
Police as Offender Managers • Classify Risks • Prosecute highest risk, maximum prison • Divert Lowest Risk, minimal cost • Manage for desistance • More emphasis on offender-victim future • Test specific tactics—RJ, drug treatment, even “transportation” by consent
Where to Start • Not Hard-Core Recidivists • Diamond Districts results (Met) • But where diversion alone does best • First Offenders—or early
500 Offenders Age 70 In & out of crime Key Turning Points John Laub Robert Sampson Turning Points
Big Ones • Partner (spouse) • Job • Change of community • Cut off ties to old friends—family!
Prisoner Resettlement Re-Location “Experiment” Whether they went back to their “hood” Unrelated to their choice Most US states require same community Louisiana does not
David S. Kirk “A Natural Experiment on Residential Change and Recidivism: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina” American Sociological Review 2009
Cause and Effect If re-imprisonment rates differ “Returners” higher than “Relocaters” Likely to be caused by relocation Not self-selection bias But were they unknown to police? QUESTION: long-term effects—not 1-year Would three years be convincing?
Relocation Less Prison? Four-Year Re-imprisonment Rates (Louisiana or other states) 1-Year4-Year Returners = 26% 65% Relocators = 11% 35% 1-year Difference = 15% raw, 58% relative 3-year Difference = 30% raw, 54% relative
Further the Better For every ten miles they moved from their old neighbourhood, at one year out, One Percent Less Re-Imprisonment
Managing Offenders in Community:Summary • Regulatory Pyramid • Escalating control, sanctions • Low to moderate severity • But also individual needs, crime by crime: --restorative justice --relocation --drug treatment --curfews --not associating with other offenders
“Turning Point Policing”(funded by Monument Trust) • Develop Risk Assessment Tool UK • Develop Damocles Tactics • Divert sample of first offenders to Damocles • Then test overall forecast-based triage
Randomized Controlled Trial RCT:COMPARISON or NET difference
Research & Development • British Society for Evidence-Based Policing • Testing “rehabilitative policing” or “Offender Desistance Policing (ODP) or “Turning Point Policing” • Managing desistance as a lifelong task • Comprehensive studies of what works
Thank You Lawrence W. Sherman Jerry Lee Centre of Experimental Criminology University of Cambridge