Taxonomy to the Rescue

Californians worried by the cost of their state's mounting crime rate last week found a solution of sorts. A $100,000, 260-page report urged the state to "synthesize a logical and complete functional definition of the system of criminal justice" in order to overcome "the inevitable problems relating to the interfacing of separable areas of endeavor." To do this, of course, state authorities would need an "indication of required quantitative relations between operational effectiveness and dollars expended in the various functional areas" and might do well to use a "taxonomic matrix for organizing and presenting offender characteristics."

This opaque advice sounded as if it had been ground out by a computer--as it had. The report on crime was prepared by scientists of Space-General Corp. using systems-engineering techniques to determine the feasibility of applying space-industry technology to the problems of crime. Translated into terrestrial English, Space-General's venture into crime research produced some useful findings. Highlights:

> The cost of California's system of criminal justice (police, prisons, courts, etc.), now $600 million annually, will rise to $900 million by 1975.

> By spending only an additional 3%, or about $20 million, annually for specified reforms and technological improvements in law enforcement, crime could be reduced and taxpayer costs actually cut within five years.

> The increasing crime rate is caused not by any surge of lawlessness but by the tremendous population explosion in the 14-29 age group, which commits the largest percentage of crimes.

In the course of their investigation, Space-General scientists several months ago pinpointed one area as potentially among the most explosive in Los Angeles: arrests there were six times the city rate, unemployment was double and population density triple the county rate. Its name was Watts.

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