The major objective of the Six-year Follow-up Study on Career Criminals was to provide data describing the effects of sentencing decisions on the behavior of career criminals. A second purpose was to develop programs to target career offenders at the time of sentencing who were likely to commit crimes in the future and incarcerate them accordingly. The data collection includes detailed demographic background and complete prior and follow-up criminal records for each selected offender. There are two types of data sets in the study, the PSI data set based on pre-sentence investigation (PSI) reports, and the Parole data set based on Parole Commission records. The PSI data set describes each offender's demographic background, criminal history, and court entry/exit history. The Parole data set contains information about the offender's background characteristics, prior records of arrests, convictions, dispositions and sentences, and follow-up records for a period of six years. Arrests are described in terms of arrest date, offense charge, disposition, result of sentence, and months incarcerated.

Using data from RECIDIVISM OF PRISONERS RELEASED IN 1994: [UNITED STATES] (ICPSR 3355), this study developed an analytical approach to utilize detailed dated criminal arrest history information in order to investigate whether, and to what extent, incarceration is able to deter offenders from future offending. This data collection consists of the syntax for a SAS macro used to estimate individual specific offending micro-trajectories, project counterfactual trajectories, and to assess the actual post-release offending patterns against the backdrop of these counterfactuals. The arrest records of individuals were clustered in chronological order and were truncated after the first post-release re-arrest event. The key independent variables used in estimating the pre-release criminal history accumulation process included the arrest number, the age at first arrest, whether or not the individual was confined as a result of the previous arrest event, and a measure of the number of years taken to reach each arrest event cumulated through the last arrest event. The same set of basic variables were used to model first re-arrest after release (recidivism).

The purpose of the study was to quantify the effect of the embrace of DNA technology on offender behavior. In particular, researchers examined whether an offender's knowledge that their DNA profile was entered into a database deterred them from offending in the future and if probative effects resulted from DNA sampling. The researchers coded information using criminal history records and data from Florida's DNA database, both of which are maintained by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), and also utilized court docket information acquired through the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) to create a dataset of 156,702 cases involving offenders released from the FDOC in the state of Florida between January 1996 and December 2004. The data contain a total of 50 variables. Major categories of variables include demographic variables regarding the offender, descriptive variables relating to the initial crime committed by the offender, and time-specific variables regarding cases of recidivism.

For this data collection, offenders confined to prison were surveyed to examine the utility of deterrence theory variables as predictors of differential desistance from serious property crimes. The investigators also examined subjects' "criminal calculus," that is, their expectations of the likely gains and losses of further criminal behavior and the conditions under which they likely would commit further crimes. Specifically, the data explored whether decisions to commit crime are based on assessment of potential returns from alternate courses of action and the risk of legal sanctions. Sixty repeat offenders who had served one or more prison sentences were asked about their history of criminal activity, reasons for committing crimes, expectations of future criminal activities, and likely consequences of committing crimes. Data were collected in pre-release interviews in 1987 and 1988 as part of a larger study. Variables include age, education, age at first arrest, alcohol and drug use as a juvenile, as a young adult, and as a mature adult, past crimes, willingness to commit specific property crimes, reasons for being willing or unwilling to commit specific property crimes, expectations of arrest subsequent to actual crimes committed, and the likelihood of future criminal activity.

This study examined the public's preferences regarding sentencing and parole of criminal offenders. It also investigated the public's willingness to pay for particular crime prevention and control strategies and tested new methods for gathering this kind of information from the public. This involved asking the public to respond to a series of crime vignettes that involved constrained choice. The study consisted of a telephone survey of 1,300 adult respondents conducted in 2000 in the United States. Following a review by a panel of experts and extensive pretesting, the final instrument was programmed for computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI). The questionnaire specifically focused on: (1) the attitudes of the public on issues such as the number of police on the street, civil rights of minority groups, and the legal rights of people accused of serious crimes, (2) the randomized evaluation of preferred sentencing alternatives for eight different crime scenarios, (3) making parole decisions in a constrained choice setting by assuming that there is only enough space for one of two offenders, (4) the underlying factors that motivate the public's parole decisions, and (5) respondents' willingness to pay for various crime prevention strategies.

The study was designed to elucidate underlying neuropsychological and emotional regulatory mechanisms in variable responses to a cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) program among prison inmates. This study tested the hypotheses that performance deficits in executive cognitive function (ECF) tasks and emotional responses will characterize aggressive and disruptive inmates and predict treatment response. All subjects were examined using noninvasive behavioral, psychological, ECF, and hormone tests. The data contain a total of 232 cases. Inmates volunteering to participate in the cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) program offered by the Maryland correctional system were recruited from three facilities using a pseudo-random selection procedure during intake into the program. Consenting inmates received an extensive baseline testing battery of several complementary dimensions of higher order neuropsychological functions as well as conditions that influence them: (1) three ECF tasks and one emotional perception task, (2) collection of salivary cortisol during an acute stress task and the Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90) taken beforehand, (3) a short general neuropsychological test, (4) three psychological questionnaires, (5) an historical inventory to assess prior drug use and child and family background, and (6) a treatment readiness, responsivity, and gain scale. An events inventory and a success inventory were also administered. Several additional tests were administered repeatedly throughout treatment. A record review was conducted after program completion to ascertain incidents of institutional misconduct as well as treatment performance outcomes. Variables include IQ, demographics, background information, prior drug use, early trauma, psychopathy, aggression, stressful events, success, reactions to provocation, treatment readiness, emotional perception/regulation, executive cognitive performance, cortisol measures, treatment gain, treatment responsivity, treatment completion, Maryland Offender Based State Correctional Information System (OBSCIS) data, institutional infractions, segregations, and several other computed variables.

This study examines the criminal activities of a group of young offenders after their release from prison to parole supervision. Previous studies have examined recidivism using arrests as the principal measure, whereas this study examines a variety of factors, including length of incarceration, age, sex, race, prior arrest record, prosecutions, length of time between parole and rearrest, parolees not prosecuted for new offenses but having their parole revoked, rearrests in states other than the paroling states, and the nature and location of rearrest charges. Parolees in the 22 states covered in this study account for 50 percent of all state prisoners paroled in the United States in 1978.

This data collection examines the effects of sentencing on offenders' subsequent criminal behaviors. The data address the following questions: (1) At what point in the criminal career is the criminal career interrupted or halted by the criminal justice system because the offender is "taken off the streets?" (2) How long is the criminal career interrupted as a result of intervention from the criminal justice system? (3) How significant are the effects of past criminal behavior, as opposed to offender characteristics, such as education, employment history, or drug use, on criminal behavior subsequent to sentencing? (4) How do the effects of sentencing differ among offenders according to background, criminal history, and offense? Special characteristics of the collection include detailed information on the demographic and psychological background of defendants, a description of the offenses and the victims, and criminal recidivism information for adult defendants. More specifically, the sentence file contains data on the defendant's family, educational background, psychological condition, social activities, financial status, employment history, substance abuse, prior and follow-up criminal records, sentence and correctional histories, and other disposition information. The event file provides data on arrest and court appearances as well as data on incarcerations, escapes, transfers, releases, paroles, and furloughs.

This study examined differences in criminal career parameters that determine the potential incapacitative effects of alternative sentencing policies directed at drug-involved offenders. In particular, the researchers explored three key aspects of offenders' criminal careers: participation, frequency of offending, and termination rates from active offending. The study focused on differences in levels of serious offending by drug-using and nonusing drug offenders compared to drug-using and nonusing predatory offenders. Longitudinal arrest data for a sample of arrestees were collected to characterize the offending patterns of drug-using and nonusing drug offenders and predatory offenders. The sample was drawn from adults arrested in Washington, DC, on any charge from July 1, 1985, to June 30, 1986. Data were collected from case files maintained by the Washington, DC, Pretrial Services Agency for 883 arrestees and 5,387 arrests. Previous and subsequent arrests of the same individual were linked to form an arrest history. Within the sample of arrestees, three main types of offenders were distinguished based on offense charge at target arrest: (1) drug offenders, (2) predatory offenders (persons charged with robbery or burglary), and (3) all others. This study focused on the first two groups and distinguished drug users from non-users based on the results of a urine drug screen administered following the target arrest. Variables regarding arrests include date of arrest, drug test result, charges filed, disposition date, disposition type, and sentence length imposed. Demographic variables include race, sex, and place of birth.