Attrition in the United States

ase attrition in the United States seems to be at the rate of less than half of all felony arrests end in a convictions. The failure of arrests and bring trail or conviction is called case attrition, and most attrition occurs between arrest and filing. One of the main misunderstandings when discussing case attrition is the understanding of what case attrition is because there many different varieties of attrition. In this instance we are looking at criminal case attrition. This is the term used for the numerous cases that are never filed on, rejected, or sent to a different jurisdiction. “In a single year in New York City, for example, of every 1000 "index felonies," only 54% were reported to police. Of these, only sixty-five led to an arrest, thirty-six resulted in a conviction, seventeen resulted in a custody sentence, and three criminals were incarcerated for over a year. Although precise figures vary, a similar pattern of sharp attrition holds across different jurisdictions, countries and eras: 46 to 60% of felony arrests will result in a pretrial dismissal at some level of the criminal justice system” (Bryden & Lengnick, 1997) . Looking at the attrition rates and what is best for the community and the victims the DA must be able to show the evidence for a solid case in support of a conviction to a jury. If there is lack of supporting evidence or contaminated evidence they may decide not to proceed and waste the resources for a mistrial or no conviction.

The criminal justice process is comprised of a variety of components, these reach from the arresting officer to the trial phase. Case attrition can have a negative effect on the criminal justice system because you are forcing a person to decide who is salvageable as a person and who is not. If the case is dismissed then a potentially dangerous person can be free but if the evidence just isn't there then there is not much of a choice. Also as more people are accused of crimes