Prosecutions for February 2012
Referring Agency: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during February 2012 the government reported 1089 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 up 8.3% 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 (-3.7 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 8.2 percent from levels reported in 2007.
The growth in these cases is partly related to increases in the matters filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. If magistrate cases are excluded and only Federal District Court cases are counted, the overall increase in prosecutions is 6.5 percent instead of 8.2 percent. The evidence suggests that part of the difference may be the result of improvements in the recording of the magistrate cases by the Justice Department.
The increase 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 February 2012 was for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen", accounting for 24.4 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (12.8%), " Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (10.2%), "Project Safe Childhood" (7.9%), "Bank Robbery" (6.3%), "Violence-Other" (5.6%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (5.2%), "Other Criminal Prosecutions" (4.3%), "Fraud-Financial Institution" (2.8%), " Fraud-Other" (2.1%), "Violence-Indian Country" (2.1%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In February 2012, 193 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 February the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 18 U.S.C Section 2113 involving the "Bank robbery and incidental crimes". This was the lead charge for 14.5 percent of all magistrate filings in February.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy" (10.9%), "21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" (10.4%), "18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts" (7.3%), " 18 USC 1073 - Flight to Avoid Prosecution or Giving Testimony" (6.7%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In February 2012, 896 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during February there were an additional 143 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 February.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during February 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 118 1 2 2 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 101 2 1 3 More 18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes 74 3 3 1 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 39 4 7 10 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 39 4 5 6 More 18 USC 1951 - Hobbs Act 35 6 11 9 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 29 7 9 8 More 18 USC 1344 - Bank Fraud 24 8 6 4 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 17 9 10 7 More 18 USC 1341 - Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles 17 9 8 5 More 18 USC 2252A - Activity relating material constituting/containing chil 17 9 15 12 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 2 a year ago, while it was ranked 2 five years ago.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846. "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846 was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 five years ago.
Ranked 3rd was "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.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions—up 29.1 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 1343 that involves " Fraud by wire, radio, or television ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—134 percent—was registered for prosecutions under " Firearms; Unlawful acts " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 922 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago—down 36 percent—was Bank Fraud (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1344 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions— 31.6 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 February 2012 the Justice Department said the government brought 406.1 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 D. C. 2,001 10 1 21 67 More N Mexico 1,851 31 2 39 34 More S Dakota 1,773 12 3 40 17 More N. Y., S 1,706 73 4 3 5 More N Dakota 1,484 8 5 68 67 More Cal, S 1,155 31 6 26 30 More Colorado 1,075 45 7 32 44 More Mo, E 990 24 8 30 12 More Ark, E 978 13 9 46 59 More Wash, E 978 12 9 54 75 More Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The District of Washington, D.C. (Washington)—with 2001 prosecutions as compared with 406.1 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during February 2012.
The District of New Mexico ranked 2nd.
District of South Dakota is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Washington, D.C. (Washington), now ranked 1st , and Southern District of California (San Diego) at 6th In the same order, these districts ranked 21st and 26th one year ago and 67th and 30th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago— 185.1 percent—was Southern District of California (San Diego). This was the same district that had the largest increase— 281.5 percent—when compared with five years ago.
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions— 37.4 percent—was Washington, D.C. (Washington). But over the past five years, Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis) showed the largest drop— 6.4 percent.
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 February 2012 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Cooke, Marcia G. Fla, S 20 1 120 173 More Lawrence, William T. Ind, S 18 2 70 - More Browning, James O. N Mexico 17 3 624 360 More Daniel, Wiley Young Colorado 16 4 230 173 More Krieger, Marcia S. Colorado 13 5 167 261 More Lynn, Barbara M. Texas, N 13 5 144 307 More Chesney, Maxine M. Cal, N 12 7 624 568 More Martinez, William Joseph Colorado 12 7 - - More Chen, Edward Milton Cal, N 10 9 - - More Battaglia, Anthony M. Cal, S 10 9 - - More Saylor, F. Dennis, IV Mass 10 9 333 683 More Fleissig, Audrey Goldstein Mo, E 10 9 167 683 More Table 4: Top 10 judges
A total of 6 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 6 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 12 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge Marcia G. Cooke in the Southern District of Florida (Miami) ranked 1st with 20 defendants in cases.
Judge William T. Lawrence in the Southern District of Indiana (Indianapolis) ranked 2nd with 18 defendants in cases.
Judge James O. Browning in the District of New Mexico ranked 3rd with 17 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: May 8, 2012
