National Goals and Indicators for the Reduction of Crime and Delinquency

Abstract

Optimum procedures for measuring the preva lence of crime vary tremendously by type of offense, because these procedures depend on whether the crime creates a death, a complaining victim, a satisfied customer, an annoyed audi ence, or a dangerous condition. Assessing the effectiveness of criminal correction requires long-term data on criminal careers, to compare the subsequent criminality of similar of fenders who receive different kinds of correctional action. The formulation of crime reduction goals must take into account the instability of crime definitions, and the social costs of crime control actions, in addition to the dimensions of crime. Because of the multiplicity of data sources and the breadth of perspective required for this diversity of measurement, it should be the primary responsibility of a single national agency, to be assisted by the many other agencies now oriented to segments of this task.