Examination of Resource Allocation as it Relates to Crime Trends.
Individual communities across America are confronted with different crime patterns and trends. In this exercise, you will be asked to discover the relationship between local crime trends and the decision-making process that is followed in order to address that criminal behavior. It is important for all criminal justice students to begin to appreciate the process that local authorities use to assign tax dollars and man-power to different types of criminal behavior based upon current data analysis and resource generation.
Your assignment, then, is to contact someone within your local criminal justice agencies (police department, sheriff’s department, or state or federal agency). Once you have established contact, please interview this individual (or their appropriate referral) by asking these questions:
How are local crime fighting decisions made? What percentage of local tax resources are made available to local agencies to address criminal behavior?
Who is responsible for determining the allocation of community resources to fighting specific criminal behavior?
What data sources are available to assist in making those allocation decisions?
Based upon current data and information, what criminal behavior is on the rise in our community and which criminal behavior is on the decline?
What kind of assessment data is available to determine the effectiveness of local crime fighting measures?
When you have completed the interview, prepare a paper that summarizes your findings and makes recommendations for change to the current process. Include in your paper the contact information, agency, job title and responsibilities of the interviewee.
