Statistical Analysis on criminal justice assist Governments to assess and evaluate the conditions, situations and patterns of security and the social effect of public spending and policies. Reliable and efficient statistical analysis for criminal justice and security management in nations is of great importance.
Statistical analysis in researches related to criminal justice and security management is used for many purposes. These purposes can be categorized in the following broad areas.
Any organization or agency needs to organize and monitor its activities and resources in an effective way in order to achieve its goals and objectives. In order to do so, the organization needs to collect information to ascertain whether it is heading towards the identified goals in a timely and organized manner. And whether the resources are being utilized as planned.
More complex organizations require greater statistical analysis particularly on resource allocations and cases.
A police administrator, as an example, is required to achieve various objectives concerning public safety, citizens’ calls for help, apprehension of offenders and other roles. The administrator needs to allocate personnel, money, facilities and operating procedures to meet these objectives. Regular statistical reports on information about the allotment of resource, suspect identification, types of crime and the incidence of calls for service are very important. They are used by the administrator to assess the agency’s existing problems and come up with suitable solutions.
In the similar vein, administrators of parole and probation agencies can utilize daily statistical reports on size of caseloads to know, for instance, if the workload at hand is in vein with the agency’s policy and, if not, any alterations required.
Statistical analysis, therefore, measures whether personnel are accomplishing the goals and objectives of an agency. This gives an insight for deciding on budget and personnel and indicates other subunits and agencies about the accomplishment of aims according to the established policies.
In some countries, the overall controlling agencies, media, special interest groups and the public as a whole demand information on efficiency and effectiveness of policies put forward to fight crime and ensure security. Special statistical analysis reports and annual statistical studies can be used to meet these demands.
Planning
Planning is a process that proceeds through a logical series of steps. It involves establishing alternative procedures to accomplish some future objectives. For instance, the court administrator may plan to identify ways in which he or she can efficiently produce trial transcripts or minimize time taken to process a case.
A prison administrator may identify effective classification systems to ensure better allocation of resources to the needs and objectives identified.
Each step of planning needs to incorporate all the required information. Statistics form part of the information needed to bring the planning process into a fruitful completion.
A criminal justice administrator may determine that the current operation of facilities in prison is at 95% capacity. Historical trends in the number of culprits admitted and released show that in two years time, the prison’s capacity will be at 102 %. However, it is conventionally required that the capacity of any prison should never exceed 95%. Some statistical analysis of the projected population of the prison is needed to give room for some degree of freedom in classification, administration and segregation of inmates. Such information would enable the administrator to assess several options on a range, including altering classification standard, releasing more detainees, expanding the current facilities, and building new facilities.
Thus, statistical analysis is crucial for the administrator to identify the problem, recognize the outcomes, assess possible solutions in response and identify the merits and demerits of each. Discriminating among options and monitoring the implementation of selected course of action requires statistical information.
Anticipation of all possibilities and implementation of plans based on such forecasts is mandatory to any justice administrator. Although some forecasting statistical techniques are sophisticated, there exist some qualitative procedures that are based on practical expertise and experience. All in all, their underlying assumption is that the future depends the present and the future. Justice administrators need some systematic approach to avoid taking the future as it comes. Therefore, statistical analysis encourages proactive management as opposed to reactive management. Forecast on crime and criminal justice aspects needs statistical data to avoid crisis management in future.
