Cost Benefit Analysis for Juvenile Justice Programs. Program Evaluation Briefing Series No. 4

摘要

This briefing focuses on how formal cost-benefit analysis can help people make informed decisions about certain aspects of the criminal justice system. Our particular focus is the juvenile justice system, but the techniques described here are applicable to the full range of criminal justice resource decisions. The emphasis is on decisions that affect how money-usually taxpayer-supplied money-is spent in the criminal justice system. Many other types of decisions, of course, are made in the criminal justice system, but formal cost-benefit analysis applies most readily to decisions that must be made about how dollars get spent. Cost-benefit information can assist decision makers in more efficiently allocating scarce public resources among competing demands.