Investigator(s): U.S. Sentencing Commission This collection contains information on federal criminal cases sentenced under the Sentencing Guidelines and Policy Statements of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984. The data files include all cases received by the United States Sentencing Commission that had sentencing dates between November 1, 1987, and September 30, 1995, and were assessed as constitutional. Constitutionality compares each case's sentencing date, circuit, district, and judge to provide uniformity in reporting the cases. The cases are categorized either as New Law, with all offenses occurring after the November 1, 1987, guidelines, or as Mixed Law, with at least one count occurring after the guideline effectiveness date and other counts prior to the guidelines.Years Produced: Updated annually

The primary purpose of this data collection was to examine the impact of the implementation of sentencing guidelines on the rate of incarcerative and nonincarcerative sentences imposed and on the average length of expected time to be served in incarceration for all offenses as well as for select groups of offenses. The measure of sentence length, "expected time to be served," was used to allow for assumed good time and parole reductions. This term represents the amount of time an offender can expect to spend in prison at the time of sentencing, a roughly equivalent standard that can be measured before and after the implementation of federal criminal sentencing guidelines in 1987. Three broad offense categories were studied: drug offenses, robbery, and economic crimes. Drug offenses include a wide range of illegal activities involving marijuana, heroin, and cocaine. Robbery includes bank and postal robbery (both armed and unarmed) as well as other types of robbery offenses that appear less frequently in the federal system, such as carrying a firearm during the commission of a robbery. Economic offenses include fraud (bank, postal, and other), embezzlement (bank, postal, and other), and tax evasion. Other monthly data are provided on the number of prison and probation sentences for all offenses and by offense categories.

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped for NACJD release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.The purpose of the study was to examine how court decisions and sentencing policy changes have affected sentencing behavior in federal drug trafficking cases. Changes at the district level and in mandatory minimum sentencing were a particular focus.Data were obtained from the Defendants Sentenced Under the Sentencing Reform Act data from the United States Sentencing Commission from fiscal years 1992-2009. These data were then merged with federal district-level indicators for the 89 federal districts from the Federal Court Management Statistics website, and state level demographic data from the United States Census Bureau. Drug trafficking cases were identified by using the sentencing guideline offense, which resulted in a sample of N=376,637 cases.

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).

This survey summarizes the data elements maintained by state and federal corrections information systems that track adult, sentenced offenders, and assesses the severity of obstacles in reporting statistical information. Two instruments, an Inventory Questionnaire and an Obstacles Survey, were mailed to Departments of Correction in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The Inventory Questionnaire asked 207 questions about data elements describing offenders, 15 questions about elements describing facility management, and 20 questions about the capabilities of the information system to process data electronically. For some elements, questions were asked to determine if more detailed information (subvalues) about the element existed. The Obstacles Survey asked departments to rate the severity of problems they may encounter when processing requests for statistical information. The items were grouped into five categories: legislative and institutional factors, hardware factors, software factors, staffing factors, and data factors.

Investigator(s): U.S. Sentencing Commission This collection contains appellate information from the 12 circuit courts of appeals of the United States. The United States Sentencing Commission compiled from the Clerk of the Court of each court of appeals the final opinions and orders, both published and unpublished, in all criminal appeals for the time period surveyed. The Commission also collected habeas corpus decisions (although technically civil matters), because such cases often involve sentencing issues. Both the "case" and the "defendant" are used in this collection as units of analysis. Each "case" comprises individual records representing all codefendants participating in a consolidated appeal. Each defendant's record comprises the sentencing-related issues corresponding to that particular defendant. The 1993 data file (Part 1) includes all appeals cases received by the U.S. Sentencing Commission as of December 22, 1993, that had disposition dates between March 9, 1990, and September 30, 1993 (inclusive). The 1994 file (Part 2) includes all appeals cases received as of December 23, 1994, that had disposition dates between October 1, 1993, and September 30, 1994 (inclusive). The 1995 data file (Part 6) includes all appeals cases received as of December 26, 1995, that had disposition dates between October 1, 1994, and September 30, 1995 (inclusive).Years Produced: Updated annually.

This data collection provides an overview of how probation cases are processed in 32 urban and suburban jurisdictions in the United States and gauges the extent to which variations in probation patterns exist between jurisdictions. Data were collected on offenders who were sentenced in 1986 and who committed one or more of the following types of offenses: homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, drug trafficking, and other felony crimes. Probation history questionnaires were completed during the last half of 1989. Information is available on number of conviction charges, race, age, sex, marital status, educational level, and ethnicity of the probationer. In addition, data on drug and alcohol use and treatment, sentencing, restitution, and offenses are provided.

The Annual Probation Surveys collect administrative data from probation agencies in the United States. Data Collected include the total number of adults on state and federal probation on January 1 and December 31 of each year, the number of adults entering and exiting probation supervision each year, and the characteristics of adults under the supervision of probation agencies. The surveys cover all 50 states, the federal system, and the District of Columbia. A crosswalk of the items included in each year of the Annual Probation Survey series, and the variable names and variable labels that have been assigned in the NACJD documentation and datasets is available. Researchers may also be interested in the companion series Annual Parole Survey Series.

In order to assess the impacts of state-level sentencing and corrections policies in the United States implemented between 1975 and 2002 on state incarceration rates during that same time period, researchers conducted a two-phase study between November 2002 and March 2004. The first phase of the research involved building a framework for understanding the types of state-level sentencing and corrections policies in use between 1975 and 2002. Phase two of the project consisted of state-level data collection for all 50 states for all study years, 1975 to 2002. The researchers produced a dataset containing outcome variables that focus on the change and growth in state incarceration rates, non-policy control variables that were found in previous studies to be associated with changes in incarceration rates, and policy variables regarding sentencing structure, drug policy, time served requirements, habitual offender laws (HOL), and mandatory sentences.

The United States Sentencing Commission, established by the 98th Congress, is an independent agency in the judicial branch of government. The Commission's primary function is to institute guidelines that prescribe the appropriate form and severity of punishment for offenders convicted of federal crimes. This survey was developed in response to issues that arose during site visits conducted in conjunction with an implementation study of sentencing guidelines and was intended to supplement the information obtained in the more extensive site visit interviews. Topics include the impact of the plea agreement, departures by the court, mandatory minimum sentences, the general issue of unwarranted sentencing disparity, and whether this disparity had increased, decreased, or stayed about the same since the sentencing guidelines were imposed in 1987.