Cjs 210 Week 6 Checkpoint

Case Attrition

CJS/220

Case Attrition

Case attrition is the failure of arrests to come to trail. Less than half of all felony arrests result in conviction. People who are arrested for a crime but do not get convicted are the case attrition. Case attrition results from the exercise of discretion by all system actors, both public and private, and from the nature of the criminal process itself. Several factors justify and require the exercise of discretion by public officials: (1) the practical inability of legislatures to specify in advance all of the conditions that properly bear on issues of criminal liability and the scope of criminal statutes, punishment, and criminal procedure (particularly when, as was noted earlier, basic goals and values often...