Recently, APA provided some insight into the issue of conviction rates through a published letter. In addition to this letter, APA would like to provide some further clarity as to why conviction rates are not an accurate measure of prosecutorial performance.
Conviction Rates Definition
A conviction is a legal declaration that someone is guilty of a criminal offense, made by the verdict of a jury or the decision of a judge in a court of law. Conviction rate, just like any other completion percentage, is calculated by dividing the number of convictions by the number of overall adjudicated cases.
To read APA’s letter regarding the use of conviction rates as a metric for prosecutorial performance, please follow this link or visit https://www.apainc.org/apa-letter-to-da-raul-torrez/.