Law enforcement statistics analysis - Essay Example

On a closer examination, it came to my mind that in some years, projections exceeded the actual number of arrests while in some years, the reverse had happened. The projections centered around 12500 in 1987 but the actual number of arrests made was around 10500. That meant officials had expected more juvenile crimes in that particular year but surprisingly, the crime rate had come down as the failure of projections revealed. As against this, the 1981 curves showed that the actual arrests had considerably exceeded the projections.

In 1992, the actual arrests and projections were almost equal. However, the 1994 curves of the graph showed that nearly 20000 juvenile arrests took place against the projection of some 17000 indicating that the officials had miserably failed in preparing the projections. I thought that this much variance between actual figures and projections would drastically weaken the police preparedness in controlling the juvenile crime and bring down the morale of the law enforcement department. Enforcement statistics and reports with such pitfalls would speak of the poor law and order management skills.

It had clearly indicated to me that this police failure would also lead to the enhancement of crime rate in the state. . I thought that this much variance between actual figures and projections would drastically weaken the police preparedness in controlling the juvenile crime and bring down the morale of the law enforcement department. Enforcement statistics and reports with such pitfalls would speak of the poor law and order management skills. It had clearly indicated to me that this police failure would also lead to the enhancement of crime rate in the state.

I had made up my mind to set right the things. I thought the officials were not analytical in preparing the estimates. Then I had called for the complete details of juvenile crime records, area wise. A thorough examination of these files and records revealed that the statistics were prepared in terms of the total number of juvenile arrests, and not in terms of age groups. 3When questioned, the officials explained that they had been preparing the statistics in the same manner for a long time.

I ordered them to give up that practice and begin preparing the crime statistics in terms of age groups, smaller areas, bigger towns and gender wise. I instructed them to prepare special statistical reports for juvenile crimes separately for the capital city Raleigh and the largest city Charlotte. This bifurcation would certainly help in establishing the nature of crimes committed by the different age groups at different places. It would also help in analyzing the reasons and circumstances pushing the teenagers towards crime world.

I reminded the officials of how two boys, aged around 7 and 8 were accused of killing a 11- year old girl in Chicago,