Selective Apprehension

A Police Strategy for Repeat Offenders

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9681328
AutoresSUSAN E MARTIN (autor de correspondencia), Lawrence W Sherman (0000-0001-7391-3562, University of Maryland, College Park)
Año1986
Volumen24
Número1
Páginas155-174
Fecha de publicación1986-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCriminology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0011-1384 • E-ISSN: 1745-9125
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1745-9125.1986.tb00381.x
OpenAlexW2064331553
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13
Referencias citadas3

This study examines the effectiveness of the Repeat Offender Project (ROP), a specialized police unit in Washington, D.C. It documents how the ROP unit operated, what it cost, and how well it achieved its goal of “selecting, apprehending, and contributing to” the conviction of persons believed to be committing jive or more Part I offenses per week. A controlled experiment showed that the ROP substantially increased the likelihood of arrest for the persons it targeted. Quasi‐experimental data indicated that ROP arrestees had longer and more serious histories of prior arrests than a comparison sample of arrestees of officers in other police units. The former arrestees were also more likely to be prosecuted and convicted on felony charges and more likely to be incarcerated. ROP officers’arrest productivity was cut in half; but this cost appears to have been offset by the greater seriousness of the current and prior offenses of its arrestees. The study concludes that the creation of selective apprehension units provides a promising new strategy for major urban police departments

Apprehension · Conviction · Criminology · Law enforcement · Political science · Seriousness · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Law · Policing Practices and Perceptions · Psychology