Violent Crime: Prediction and Control
Authors: Koerin Beverly 
Published: March 2007

Violent crime has become a major public concern, threatening many citizens' sense of well-being and involving tremendous national social and economic costs. The various professions involved in the study, rehabili tation, and control of violent offenders feel increasing public pressure to protect society from crimes of violence, primarily by incapacitating the offender.

Decisions to incarcerate or release offenders are often based on in dividual predictions of future violent behavior. Recent public policy con cerning career offenders represents an attempt to protect society by evaluating collective probabilities of future violent behavior.

This paper examines the growing concern over violent crime, the prediction techniques that have been used to determine the disposition of an offender, the tendency toward overprediction documented by various research studies, and recent public policies enacted to curb crimes of violence. Finally, balancing individual rights and the rights of society in light of public attitude and public policy involves several moral and ethical questions.

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6. Ibid., p. 48.

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10. Wilson, Thinking about Crime, p. 21.

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28. Ibid., p. 155.

29. Ibid.

30. Ibid., p. 153.

31. Kozol et al., "Diagnosis and Treatment of Dangerousness," p. 373.

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34. Ibid., p. 1169.

35. Ibid., pp. 1165-66.

36. Ibid., pp. 1169-70.

37. Wenk et al., "Can Violence Be Predicted?" p. 402.

38. Monahan and Cummings, "Social Implications of the Inability to Predict Violence," pp. 160-61.

39. Sutherland and Cressey, Principles of Criminology, pp. 590-91.

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42. Gresham M. Sykes, Crime & Society (New York: Random House, 1967), p. 194.

43. Schellhardt, "Experimental Program," p. 28.