NIJ Survey of Prosecutors.

MENU TITLE: NIJ Survey of Prosecutors
Series: NIJ Update
Published: May 1995
3 pages
5,474 bytes

NIJ Survey of Prosecutors

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The National Assessment Program Survey

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) conducts
the National Assessment Program (NAP) survey
approximately every 3 years to identify the needs
and problems of State and local criminal justice
agencies.  The survey asks participants about their
workload problems and initiatives to solve them as
well as about special concerns and needs. NIJ uses
the results to plan its research, evaluation, and
demonstration programs. 

For the 1994 survey, questionnaires were sent to
more than 3,300 criminal justice professionals in
13 types of agencies in 411 counties nationwide. A
total of 211 counties having populations greater
than 250,000 were surveyed, along with a random
sample of 200 counties having populations between
50,000 and 250,000. Responses were received between
October 1993 and February 1994 from 2,585 people
(for a response rate of 69 percent).

The complete report of the survey, National
Assessment Program: 1994 Survey Results, by Tom
McEwen, can be obtained free from the National
Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS), Box
6000, Rockville, MD 20849-6000. Call 800-851-3420
or e-mail askncjrs@ncjrs.aspensys.com. Ask for NCJ
150856. Also available from NCJRS are individual
summaries of responses from the other following
groups: police chiefs and sheriffs; prosecutors;
probation and parole agency directors; judges,
trial court administrators, and State court
administrators; and wardens and State commissioners
of corrections.
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"The prosecution of child molestation cases takes a
tremendous amount of resources from my office. We
can process 40 theft or drug cases in the time 1
child molestation case takes." So commented one
prosecutor in the National Institute of Justice
(NIJ) 1994 National Assessment Program (NAP)
survey. A total of 271 prosecutors (66 percent of
the 408 surveyed) responded. Violent crime,
specifically child abuse and domestic violence,
headed the list of workload problems that
prosecutors said they faced.

Workload problems

Violent crime. When asked to rate the extent to
which violent crime--assault, homicide, rape,
domestic violence, and child abuse--contributed to
workload problems in their offices, about 92
percent of prosecutors indicated that child abuse
was the primary contributor because these difficult
cases required more time to prosecute. Ranking a
close second was domestic violence,  with 91
percent of prosecutors citing this violent crime as
a workload problem. In domestic violence cases,
prosecutors said victims often lose interest in
prosecuting the offender, and this resulted in a
large number of dismissals.

Drugs. More than 90 percent of the prosecutors
surveyed cited drug possession and drug sales as
causes of workload problems primarily because of
the increase in number of cases handled.
Ninety-three percent said that to expedite case
processing, their jurisdiction had instituted drug
treatment programs as an alternative sanction.
However, 82 percent indicated that these programs
needed improvement, with almost half saying major
improvements were necessary.

Gangs. Fifty-eight percent of prosecutors in large
jurisdictions (over 250,000 in population) also
claimed gang-related crimes as contributing to
their workload problems. This large percentage
contrasts with the 33 percent in small
jurisdictions who said they had a gang problem. To
deal with this problem, some offices had gang
prosecution units: 38 percent of the prosecutors in
large counties, and 5 percent in smaller ones. 

Agency initiatives

Alternative sanctions. Prosecutors gave mixed
reviews to various initiatives developed as
alternatives to incarceration. Prosecutors were
most dissatisfied with boot camps; 71 percent said
boot camps operated in their jurisdictions but 70
percent of them said they needed improvements.
About 92 percent of prosecutors reported having
work release centers in their jurisdictions, with
56 percent of them indicating their centers needed
improvement. About 83 percent of prosecutors said
electronic monitoring was used as an alternative
sanction, but 64 percent noted improvements were
needed.  However, virtually all the additional,
written comments from prosecutors supported
electronic monitoring as a sentencing option for
low-risk offenders.

Special issues

Information systems. Many prosecutors noted that
the lack of information systems or inadequate
information systems created problems in their
offices. They were especially interested in systems
to help alleviate attorney scheduling conflicts.
Only 58 percent said they currently had information
systems with this capability, and of those, 65
percent indicated that their systems needed
improvement.

Research and evaluation priorities

Prosecutors cited alternative sanctions, juvenile
crime, and violent crime as the three areas they
recommended for future research and evaluation
studies. Specifically, they wanted to know how
effective boot camp programs were in modifying
behavior. They also wanted to know about the
increase in violent crime committed by subjects 18
years old and younger and the relationship between
gangs and violent crime.