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Computers in the Criminal Justice System

Computers in the Criminal Justice System

Computers have been integrated into the criminal justice system in several ways over the last few decades. Such integration has had numerous advantages such as faster identification of repeat offenders, better training and safety possibilities for law enforcement personnel and faster filing of court documents. In many ways, the federal government has spearheaded computer integration in law enforcement aided by the cooperation of law enforcement agencies at all levels (Moser, 2000).

The collection of crime statistics is now automated in many agencies where data are submitted using the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Under the traditional Uniform Crime Reporting summary system, arresting officers were required to write descriptions of crimes. Now, with computer software, data fields guide officers step by step through the reporting process, thereby eliminating the need for narrative descriptions (Moser, 2000). Furthermore, two new FBI programs went online in July 1999. The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) 2000 and the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) enhance the law enforcement community's ability to identify known criminals by rapidly providing vital information (Moser, 2000). NCIC 2000 can accept, store, and retrieve digital images such as mug shots and right-index fingerprints, thereby allowing officers to obtain or verify suspect identification within minutes (Moser, 2000). On the other hand, IAFIS allows local, state, and federal criminal justice agencies to electronically submit fingerprint information and allows personnel to compare submitted electronic images with its database of over 38 million fingerprint records (Moser, 2000). Thus, users can determine positive or negative identification within hours instead of the weeks needed under the old manual system.

At the state level, the Law Enforcement Agencies Data S...

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Computers in the Criminal Justice System. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 12:00, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1689146.html