Prosecutions for August 2012
Referring Agency: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during August 2012 the government reported 1135 new prosecutions for these matters. Those cases were referred by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is down 8.5% over the previous month.
The comparisons of the number of defendants charged are based on case-by-case information obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys. (See Table 1)
When monthly 2012 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was down (-3 percent). Prosecutions over the past year are still much higher than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are up 3.1 percent from levels reported in 2007.
The leveling out from the levels five years ago in prosecutions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of prosecutions of this type recorded on a month-to-month basis. Where a prosecution was initially filed in U.S. Magistrate Court and then transferred to the U.S. District Court, the magistrate filing date was used since this provides an earlier indicator of actual trends. The superimposed line on the bars plots the six-month moving average so that natural fluctuations are smoothed out. The one and five-year rates of change in Table 1 and in the sections that follow are all based upon this six-month moving average. To view trends year-by-year rather than month-by-month, see TRAC's annual report series for a broader picture.
Cases were classified by prosecutors into more specific types.
The largest number of prosecutions of these matters in August 2012 was for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen", accounting for 32.3 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (10.2%), " Project Safe Childhood" (6.7%), "Bank Robbery" (6.6%), "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (5.7%), "Violence-Indian Country" (4.3%), "Violence-Other" (4.1%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (3.7%), "Other Criminal Prosecutions" (3.3%), " Fraud-Financial Institution" (2.9%), "Fraud-Other" (2.6%), "Fraud-Health Care" (2%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In August 2012, 185 defendants in cases for these matters were filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. These courts handle less serious misdemeanor cases, including what are called "petty offenses." In addition, complaints are sometimes filed in the magistrate courts before an indictment or information is entered. In these cases, the matter starts in the magistrate courts and later moves to the district court where subsequent proceedings take place.
In the magistrate courts in August the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 21 U.S.C Section 846 involving the "Attempt and conspiracy". This was the lead charge for 15.7 percent of all magistrate filings in August.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes" (10.3%), "21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" (8.6%), "18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television " (5.9%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In August 2012, 950 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during August there were an additional 149 defendants whose cases moved from the magistrate courts to the U.S. district courts after an indictment or information was filed. The sections which follow cover both sets of cases and therefore cover all matters filed in district court during August.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during August 2012referred by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 110 1 1 2 More 18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes 82 2 3 1 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 64 3 2 3 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 41 4 7 7 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 35 5 5 4 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 34 6 9 8 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 34 6 11 9 More 18 USC 113 - Assaults within maritime and territorial jurisdictions 25 8 13 11 More 18 USC 1341 - Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles 22 9 4 6 More 18 USC 1349 - Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy 22 9 6 24 More Table 2: Top charges filed
"Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 841) was the most frequent recorded lead charge. "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 841) was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 2 five years ago.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Bank robbery and incidental crimes" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 2113. "Bank robbery and incidental crimes" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 2113 was ranked 3 a year ago, while it was ranked 1 five years ago.
Ranked 3rd was "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846. "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846 was ranked 2 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 five years ago.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions—up 55.6 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 922 that involves " Firearms; Unlawful acts ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—371.1 percent—was registered for prosecutions under " Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1349 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago—down 41.1 percent—was Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1341 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions— 30.3 percent—was for filings where the lead charge was " Bank robbery and incidental crimes " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 2113 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In August 2012 the Justice Department said the government brought 429.6 prosecutions for every ten million people in the United States.
Understandably, there is great variation in the per capita number of prosecutions that are filed in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.
The districts registering the largest number of prosecutions per capita for these matters last month are shown in Table 3. Districts must have at least 5 prosecutions to receive a ranking.
Judicial District Percapita Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago S Dakota 3,693 25 1 32 27 More D. C. 2,401 12 2 15 73 More Ind, S 1,518 49 3 21 57 More Ken, E 1,384 25 4 38 27 More Tenn, E 1,337 28 5 34 45 More Alaska 1,227 7 6 52 52 More Conn 1,126 33 7 36 35 More Ill, C 1,078 20 8 56 39 More Penn, E 1,071 51 9 11 11 More N. Y., W 1,035 24 10 40 42 More Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The District of South Dakota—with 3693 prosecutions as compared with 429.6 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during August 2012.
The District of Washington, D.C. (Washington) ranked 2nd.
Southern District of Indiana (Indianapolis) is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), now ranked 9th , and Washington, D.C. (Washington) at 2nd In the same order, these districts ranked 11th and 15th one year ago and 11th and 73rd five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago— 100 percent—was Connecticut . Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 388 percent—was Washington, D.C. (Washington).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions— 75 percent—was Alaska . This was the same district that had the largest increase— 70 percent—when compared with five years ago.
Top Ranked District Judges
At any one time, there are about 680 federal District Court judges working in the United States. The judges recorded with the largest number of new crime cases of this type during August 2012 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Barker, Sarah Evans Ind, S 40 1 112 495 More Story, Richard W. Ga, N 23 2 613 201 More Bryant, Vanessa Lynne Conn 22 3 472 - More Arcara, Richard Joseph N. Y., W 20 4 20 101 More Tucker, Petrese B. Penn, E 20 4 214 411 More Thapar, Amul Roger Ken, E 18 6 177 - More Shirley, C. Clifford Tenn, E 16 7 529 234 More Shadid, James Edward Ill, C 15 8 718 - More Spaulding, Karla R. Fla, M 13 9 - - More Moses, Alia Texas, W 13 9 283 - More Table 4: Top 10 judges
A total of 7 out of the "top ten" judges were in districts which were in the top ten with the largest number of filings per capita, while the remaining 3 judges were from other districts.
Judge Sarah Evans Barker in the Southern District of Indiana (Indianapolis) ranked 1st with 40 defendants in cases.
Judge Richard W. Story in the Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta) ranked 2nd with 23 defendants in cases.
Judge Vanessa Lynne Bryant in the District of Connecticut ranked 3rd with 22 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: November 19, 2012
