Maryland Hot Spot Initiative Evaluation
The evaluation of Maryland hot spots is being conducted in three parts each by separate research endeavors. The first component of the evaluation, conducted by Lawrence Sherman at the University of Maryland, will analyze basic crime data (including displacement effects) for the hot spot locations and certain control areas for a three year time period. The second part of the evaluation, conducted by the Urban Institute, will consist of intensive studies of ten hot spot operations including some case analyses and the development of a performance measure. The Maryland Justice Analysis Center will conduct the third part of the evaluation. This component will specifically analyze the probation component of the hot spots initiative.
The community probation evaluation will be conducted over a three-year period and will involve several stages. Each year, the MJAC will conduct a performance evaluation of the community probation teams as well as an evaluation of the probationers serviced by the teams. Evaluation of the teams will be conducted through a series of interviews with team members and will be completed in conjunction with the Urban Institute. Evaluation of the probationers performance will involve data collection of items indicating compliance with the conditions of probation sentences (i.e., abiding by drug conditions and number of re-arrests). In addition to the performance evaluations, each year the MJAC will interview supervisors and mid-level probation personnel not included in the community effort to ascertain their level of understanding and satisfaction or concerns with the program. Finally, we will conduct an analysis of ¡°hot spot¡± probation cases before the implementation of community probation teams and an equal number of cases handled through the community probation teams to determine case processing differences. This analysis will also involve a review of records to determine the effect of contacts with agents, types of contacts, services provide, and case outcomes.
Homicide Clearance
The Maryland Justice Analysis Center is also continuing to conduct analyses on homicide clearance rates. Using data obtained from the Federal Bureau of Investigation¡¯s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and Supplemental Homicide Report (SHR) during the years 1980-1993, the MJAC will assess the impact of victim and offender characteristics (i.e., race, gender, number of victims, victim/offender relationship, etc.) and other circumstances surrounding the homicide on the clearance rates over time. The data used for this study consist of 170 U.S. cities with populations over 100,000. The MJAC will report any changes in homicide characteristics that have occurred over time and relate those changes to the decrease in homicide clearance rates.
Model Policies for Law Enforcement
The Maryland Justice Analysis Center is also working in conjunction with the Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions on composing a manual of model policies for Law Enforcement in Maryland. To do this, the MJAC collected and reviewed existing policy manuals from around the state of Maryland. From this review, model policy drafts were written to include the most general consistencies of the existing law enforcement policies. These drafts were reviewed for the appropriateness of their legal content and presented at the annual meetings of the Maryland Chiefs of Police Association and the Maryland Sheriffs Association. Final drafts have been submitted to the Police and Correctional Training Commissions and will be available for distribution to law enforcement agencies throughout the state in the spring of 1999. |
