While the number of cases continued to increase, the severity of sanctions was starting to decline. However, these changes will not be shared equally by racial groups. It is intended that these projections will contribute to creating an objective basis for planning strategies to improve the handling of juvenile offenders in future years. Finally, these projections should be used as a basis for creating a consensus among the State's officials and concerned citizens on the most effective strategy for reducing juvenile crime and handling juvenile offenders. Agencies currently gathering data on offenders should make a concerted effort to work together to improve the uniformity, usefulness, and comprehensiveness of data available for analysis.
Many laws dealing with crime are passionate responses to very troubling events.
Policy makers must evaluate the impact of such laws, determine the cost benefit, and determine the effectiveness of laws designed to mitigate crime. The data collection agencies and legislators must determine the policy questions that are to be asked. As this study reveals, current data is collected in response to partial inquires that do not address more general questions about what is happening in the overall system. The project's stakeholders advisory group agreed that a special task force is needed to streamline data collection to enable policy makers to answer policy questions that permeate all segments of the justice system. This task force is to suggest changes that are to be considered during the 1999 legislative session.