Use of Crime Data Public perception of crime is inaccurate. For example, the majority of Americans believe crime is up when it is at its lowest in decades. Furthermore, White Americans overestimate...

Use of Crime Data

Public perception of crime is inaccurate. For example, the majority of Americans believe crime is up when it is at its lowest in decades. Furthermore, White Americans overestimate the proportion of crime committed by people of color by 20–30 percent.10 Crime is an issue greatly influenced by prejudice, fear, and political exploitation and this is aggravated by the fact that science and data are rarely used to develop public policy, laws, sentencing guidelines, or rehabilitation programs.11 Often the response to the “crime problem” has racial overtones in that laws and policies disproportionally affect persons of color and minorities.¹²
For example, mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent crimes that arose during the “get tough on crime” era have proven to be a disaster and have filled the prisons with nonviolent offenders. In an October 22, 2015 speech, Former President Barack Obama advocated for “a fairer and more effective criminal justice system guided by data and evidence-based approaches.” The United States has a lot of data on crime. But rarely is the data used in a scientific manner to identify what works.13 How can the data be used to make changes in the criminal justice system that will make a difference in crime and rehabilitation?