This data collection represents the sixth in a series of statistical reports sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The purpose of the series is to provide statistical information on how prosecutors and the courts dispose of criminal cases involving adults arrested for felony crimes. With this purpose in mind, information was collected on items such as an individual's arrest date, sentencing date, court charge, and case disposition.

Investigator(s): Bureau of Justice Statistics The National Survey of Prosecutors is a survey of chief prosecutors in state court systems. A chief prosecutor is an official, usually locally elected and typically with the title of district attorney or county attorney, who is in charge of a prosecutorial district made up of one or more counties, and who conducts or supervises the prosecution of felony cases in a state court system. Prosecutors in courts of limited jurisdiction, such as municipal prosecutors, were not included in the survey. The survey's purpose was to obtain detailed descriptive information on prosecutors' offices, as well as information on their policies and practices. Years Produced: Every 4 to 5 years.

This data collection focuses on adult cases of serious crime such as homicide (and related death investigations), rape, robbery, aggravated assault/battery, burglary, and arson. Data are included for Peoria, Illinois, Chicago, Illinois, Kansas City, Missouri, and Oakland, California. The data consist of police, court, and laboratory records from reports submitted by police personnel during investigations of suspected criminal offenses. The primary source of information was police case files. Prosecutor and court files were reviewed for information regarding the disposition of suspects who were arrested and formally charged. Crime laboratory reports include information concerning the evidence submitted and the examiner's worksheets, notes, and final results. There are eight files in this dataset. Each of the four cities has one file for cases with physical evidence and one file for cases in which physical evidence was not collected or examined.

This data collection provides information on multiple prosecutions for individual offenders. The data are intended for use in the exploration and description of relationships among the various elements of the adjudication process (characteristics of the offender and offense and decisions made by various actors in the prosecution and sentencing of the offenders). The sampled incidents were drawn from two types of offenses: residential burglary and armed robbery. The collection includes only those incidents involving male offenders who were previously unknown to their victims and who were facing adjudication in adult court. The data collection instrument probed five areas for each offender and incident sampled: A. Related Incidents (information to identify all other incidents for which processing overlapped that of the sampled incident), B. Incident Description (information about the criminal incident itself, such as date and location of the incident, date of arrest, victims, weapons, accomplices, witnesses, and evidence), C. Adjudication Process (information such as bond amount, legal representation, adjudication events and outcomes, date of sentencing, and type and length of incarceration), D. Defendant (information about the defendant himself, including date of birth, race/descent, and employment status), and E. Prior Record (information about the defendant's record, such as his age at first arrest and first incarceration, the number of times he was incarcerated, and history of drug and/or alcohol abuse).

This data collection examines the impact of defendants' prior criminal records on the sentencing of male and female defendants committing violent and non-violent crimes. The collection also provides data on which types of prior records most influenced the sentencing judges. Variables deal specifically with the defendant, the judge and the characteristics of the current case. Only cases that fell into one of 14 categories of common offenses were included. These offenses were murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, assault, minor assault, burglary, auto theft, embezzlement, receiving stolen property, forgery, sex offenses other than rape, drug possession, and driving while intoxicated.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the role and impact of forensic science evidence on the criminal justice process. The study utilized a prospective analysis of official record data that followed criminal cases in five jurisdictions (Los Angeles County, California; Indianapolis, Indiana; Evansville, Indiana; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and South Bend, Indiana) from the time of police incident report to final criminal disposition. The data were based on a random sample of the population of reported crime incidents between 2003 and 2006, stratified by crime type and jurisdiction. A total of 4,205 cases were sampled including 859 aggravated assaults, 1,263 burglaries, 400 homicides, 602 rapes, and 1,081 robberies. Descriptive and impact data were collected from three sources: police incident and investigation reports, crime lab reports, and prosecutor case files. The data contain a total of 175 variables including site, crime type, forensic variables, criminal offense variables, and crime dispositions variables.

The purposes of this study are to describe sentencing outcomes in felony courts for selected serious offenses--homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and drug trafficking--and to establish a statistical series on sentencing outcomes in felony courts throughout the United States. The jurisdictions consist of cities and counties with an average population of 1.1 million. Among the jurisdictions, the sentencing schemes available varied, with both determinate and indeterminate sentencing practices in operation. The study distinguishes between core informational items such as criminal charges, type of sentence imposed and terms of the prison sentence, and optional items such as characteristics of the offense and the defendant, and how the case was processed.

This data collection provides information about sentencing patterns established by the United States District Courts for federal offenses. It is one of only a few studies that examine federal sentencing patterns, court involvement, sentencing, and criminal histories. Eleven types of crimes are included: bank robbery, embezzlement, income tax evasion, mail theft, forgery, drugs, random other, false claims, homicide, bribery of a public official, and mail fraud. There are three kinds of data files that pertain to the 11 types of crimes: psi files, offense files, and AO files. The psi files describe defendant demographic background and criminal history. The offense files contain questions tailored to a particular type of offense committed by a defendant and the results of conviction and sentencing. The AO files provide additional information on defendants' background characteristics, court records, and dates of court entry and exit.

The National Crime Survey (NCS) collects data on personal and household victimization through an ongoing national survey of households and household members. Only data for robbery and assaults are included in this dataset. There are two data files: Assault Victim Experiences, and Victim and Non-Victim Responses. Items included are time and place of occurrence, injuries suffered, medical expenses incurred, number, age, race, and sex of offender(s), relationship of offender(s) to victim, marital status, employment, military experience, and residency.

Investigator(s): Bureau of Justice Statistics The National Justice Agency List is a master name and address file created and maintained by the United States Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The file was first created in 1970, and the Census Bureau has continued to maintain and expand the file. For the original survey, each county in the United States and each municipality and township with a 1960 population of 1,000 or more persons was surveyed to identify the names and addresses of the criminal justice agencies and institutions controlled by local government. The survey was conducted by mail canvass. In addition to the mail survey, the Census Bureau collected information on state-level governments and counties with a 1960 population of 500,000 or more and cities with a 1960 population of 300,000 or more through in-house research methods. The reference information included a variety of published government documents such as budget statements, organization manuals, and state, county, and municipal directories.