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Criminal Justice Reform, Monetary Incentives, and Policy Evaluation *
Author(s) -
HEUMANN MILTON,
CHURCH THOMAS W.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
law and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.534
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-9930
pISSN - 0265-8240
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9930.1990.tb00042.x
Subject(s) - incentive , economic justice , criminal justice , process (computing) , business , public economics , economics , political science , law , microeconomics , computer science , operating system
Innovation in criminal justice frequently fails, or is perceived as having failed. In this paper we look at a highly imaginative, quintessential 1980's innovation – the use of financial incentives to encourage prosecutors to process more quickly their oldest cases and their cases involving defendants incarcerated pre‐trial. Measured by conventional “bottom line” criteria the incentive scheme can be labeled a failure. But measured both by the limited actual success at least one office achieved, and by the general effectiveness of the incentives as motivators for three out of the four offices studied, a somewhat more positive assessment of the efficacy of incentives can be fashioned.