The criminal repeat offender in Dallas

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the criminal offender in the city of Dallas and to analyze those functions of the criminal justice system that attempt to control these offenders. This study deals with the persons who commit criminal offenses and will not attempt to determine the causes for criminal behavior. The primary purpose is to determine who commits criminal acts; the first offender or the repeat offender. Analysis is made to determine why the repeat offender is able to continue his criminal behavior in spite of society's efforts to correct him. Methods: The major data collection portions of this research are in four distinct parts: (1) a review of the literature on recidivism from the law enforcement standpoint--this includes information from published work, official documents of criminal justice agencies, and documented case histories of Dallas offenders; (2) an analysis and summation of statistical information on all of the Dallas County offenders now incarcerated in the Texas Department of Corrections--this includes a review of social characteristics, offense information, and criminal histories of these offenders; (3) personal interviews with Dallas County offenders who were convicted and sentenced to prison--this effort is presented to expand on the information gained in the statistical analysis mentioned in number (2) above; and (4) an analysis of a substantial number of offenders against whom criminal charges have been filed by the Dallas Police Department to determine their criminal histories and their experience in the criminal justice system—this also includes a review of the time delays within the system and the dismissals that occur from time of entry to the time of exit from the criminal justice system. Findings: 1. Sixty percent of the persons charged with a criminal offense by the Dallas Police Department are repeat offenders. 2. Repeat offenders account for ninety percent of the multiple case clearances investigated by the Dallas Police Department. 3. Interviews with ninety-nine Dallas County inmates at the Texas Department of Corrections show that those inmates who were repeat offenders admitted fifty-five times as many offenses as first offenders admitted. 4. Dallas Police Department files criminal charges with the criminal courts against suspects in fewer than one-half of the criminal cases cleared. The police are not filing all of the criminal charges that they could. 5. A majority of all criminals convicted of multiple counts receive concurrent sentences. 6. Cases take a mean average of 271 days to come to trial after being filed during 1971 in Dallas County. 7. Many repeat offenders commit offenses while out of jail on bond because of delay in trial.