My busting philosophy is this. it may be slightly flawed but it's based off of my experience:
1) Start the day out busting someone that won't immediately land you in the slammer! (The cost of each bust is about 5 Nerve, that number can be reduced further with Faction Perks & Education Courses)
Level 50 BUST 1 - 30
Level 40 BUST 1 - 25
Level 30 BUST 1 - 20
Level 20 BUST 1 - 15
2) The time for the busts should be around 1hr - 2hr (Nothing more or you risk getting caught!)
3) You're more likely to bust from 2 - 4 people daily (Education/ Faction Perks/ Books/ Company Specials can increase this number)
4) I usually bust within 15 minutes for the first two busts, then I wait about 4 hours for the third bust (This is my current max daily, as I only have a Faction Perk that increases success by 50%)
5) Your Dexterity & Level play a role in how successful you are at busting, so I inferred that the higher your Dexterity & Level are, the easier it'll be for you to bust higher levels with more time in prison.
6) One side note to remember is that busting merits are a really long term goal, you will get frustrated at times when you fail for absolutely no reason, but keep at it and help those noobs out of prison!
- Ego