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compiled from the Clerk of the Court of each court of appeals the final opinions and orders, both published and unpublished, in all criminal appeals for the time period surveyed.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.

Investigator(s): Bureau of Justice Statistics Data in this collection examine the processing of federal offenders. The Cases Terminated files (Parts 1-3 and 25-28) contain information about defendants in criminal cases filed in the United States Federal District Court and terminated in the calendar year indicated. Defendants in criminal cases may either be individuals or corporations, and there is one record for each defendant in each case terminated. Information on court proceedings, date the case was filed, date the case was terminated, most serious charge, and reason for termination are included. The Docket and Reporting System files (Parts 4-7 and 31-34) include information on suspects in investigative matters that took an hour or more of a United States Attorney's time with one of the following outcomes: (1) the United States Attorney declined to prosecute, (2) the case was filed in Federal District Court, or (3) the matter was disposed by a United States magistrate. Codes for each disposition and change of status are also provided.The Pretrial Services data (Parts 8 and 22) present variables on the circuit, district, and office where the defendant was charged, type of action, year of birth and sex of the defendant, major offense charge, and results of initial and detention hearings. The Parole Decisions data (Part 9) contain information from various parole hearings such as court date, appeal action, reopening decision, sentence, severity, offense, and race and ethnicity of the defendant. The Offenders Under Supervision files (Parts 15-16 and 37-40) focus on convicted offenders sentenced to probation supervision and federal prisoners released to parole supervision. The Federal Prisoner files (Parts 18 and 20) supply data on when an offender entered and was released from confinement, as well as the amount of time served for any given offense.Years Produced: Annually.NACJD has prepared a resource guide for the Federal Justice Statistics Program.

The United States Sentencing Commission, established by the 98th Congress, is an independent agency in the judicial branch of government. The Commission recommends guidelines prescribing the appropriate form and severity of punishment for offenders convicted of federal crimes. These data were collected to determine whether sentencing disparities existed and whether the guidelines were adequate. Basic information in the collection includes a description of the offense, characterization of the defendant's background and criminal record, method of disposition of the case, and sentence imposed. Felony and misdemeanor cases are included while petty offense cases are excluded. Three types of additional information were used to augment the existing data: (1) more detailed offense and offender characteristics identified by the United States Sentencing Commission but coded by federal probation officers, (2) actual time served in prison from the SENTRY data file of the United States Bureau of Prisons, and (3) information necessary to estimate prospective release dates from the hearing files of the United States Parole Commission. The unit of analysis is the defendant.

The data contain records of defendants in criminal cases filed in United States District Court before or during fiscal year 2011 and still pending as of year-end. The data were constructed from the Administrative Office of the United States District Courts' (AOUSC) criminal file. Defendants in criminal cases may be either individuals or corporations. There is one record for each defendant in each case filed. Included in the records are data from court proceedings and offense codes for up to five offenses charged at the time the case was filed. (The most serious charge at termination may differ from the most serious charge at case filing, due to plea bargaining or action of the judge or jury.) In a case with multiple charges against the defendant, a "most serious" offense charge is determined by a hierarchy of offenses based on statutory maximum penalties associated with the charges. The data file contains variables from the original AOUSC files as well as additional analysis variables, or "SAF" variables, that denote subsets of the data. These SAF variables are related to statistics reported in the Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics, Tables 4.1-4.5 and 5.1-5.6. Variables containing identifying information (e.g., name, Social Security number) were replaced with blanks, and the day portions of date fields were also sanitized in order to protect the identities of individuals. These data are part of a series designed by the Urban Institute (Washington, DC) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Data and documentation were prepared by the Urban Institute.

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 by NACJD for 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. This study utilized data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics on federal criminal case processing to study jurisdictional variations in prosecutorial decision-making outcomes. It linked information across multiple federal agencies in order to track individual offenders across the various stages of the federal justice system. Specifically, it combined arrest information from the United States Marshall's Service with charging information from the Executive and Administrative Offices of the United States Attorney and with sentencing information from the United States Sentencing Commission. These individual data were subsequently augmented with additional information on federal courts to examine contextual variations in charging decisions across federal jurisdictions. There are three data files. Dataset 1 (Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA) and United States Marshals Service (USMS) Data) contains 88 variables and 284,869 cases. Dataset 2 (Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC) and United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) Data) contains 717 variables and 256,598 cases. Dataset 3 (United States District Court Characteristics Data) contains 6 variables and 89 cases. Only Dataset 3 is being released as part of the available study materials. Datasets 1 and 2 can be re-created using the syntax files which are included in the study materials.

Investigator(s): U.S. Sentencing Commission These data, collected to assist in the development of sentencing guidelines, describe offense and sentencing characteristics for organizations sentenced in federal district courts. The United States Sentencing Commission's primary function is to inform federal courts of sentencing policies and practices that include guidelines prescribing the appropriate form and severity of punishment for offenders convicted of federal crimes. Court-related variables include primary offense type, pecuniary offense loss and gain, dates of disposition and sentencing, method of determination of guilt, number of counts pled and charged, and dates and types of sentencing and restitution. Defendant organization variables include ownership structure, number of owners and employees, highest level of corporate knowledge of the criminal offense, highest level of corporate indictment and conviction for participation in the criminal offense, annual revenue, equity and financial status of the defendant organization, whether it was a criminal organization, duration of criminal activity, and risk to national security. Part 1, Organizational Defendants Data, 1988, describes offense and sentencing characteristics for organizations sentenced in federal district courts in 1988. Part 2, Organizational Defendants Data, 1989-1990, is a compilation of offense and sentencing characteristics for the population of organizations sentenced in federal district courts during the period January 1, 1989, to June 30, 1990. Part 3, Statute Data, 1989-1990, is a secondary component of the Commission's study that includes only the statutes of conviction and number of counts per conviction, during the period January 1, 1989, to June 30, 1990. Part 4, Organizational Defendants Data, 1987-1993, includes all organizational defendants sentenced pursuant to the Chapter Two, Part R (1987) antitrust guidelines and the Chapter Eight (1991) sentencing guidelines for organizational defendants that were sentenced between November 1, 1987, through September 30, 1993, and were received by the Commission. Part 6, Organizational Defendants Data, 1994, gives information on organizational defendants sentenced during fiscal year October 1, 1993, through September 30, 1994, and includes culpability scores and Chapter Eight (1991) culpability scoring procedures. Part 8, Organizational Defendants Data, 1995, covers fiscal year October 1, 1994, through September 30, 1995, and also includes culpability scores and Chapter Eight (1991) culpability scoring procedures. This file includes 9 defendants sentenced pursuant to Section 2R1.1 (1987) and 111 defendants sentenced pursuant to the Chapter Eight guidelines. Years Produced: Updated annually

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 by NACJD for 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. This study directly examined the nature and characteristics of cases prosecuted in the federal courts by analyzing prosecutorial decisions to proceed with charges (or not) once an arrest is initiated, and to investigate any adjustment from the arresting offense to the charging offense. These decisions were analyzed to document their correlates and identify variation across case type. The collection contains 1 SPSS data file (2002-10-Arrest-cases--FINAL-ANALYSIS.sav (n=794,807; 43 variables)) and 1 SPSS syntax file.