Prosecutions for July 2012
Referring Agency: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during July 2012 the government reported 1254 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 0.9% 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 (-7.7 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 7.8 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 July 2012 was for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen", accounting for 22.9 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (13%), " Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (7.7%), "Bank Robbery" (6.5%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (6.1%), "Project Safe Childhood" (5.1%), "Organized Crime-Emerging Organization" (4.9%), "Violence-Other" (4.7%), "Fraud-Financial Institution" (2.7%), " Violence-Indian Country" (2.6%), "Other Criminal Prosecutions" (2.2%), "Fraud-Health Care" (2.1%), "Fraud-Other" (2.1%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In July 2012, 208 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 July the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 21 U.S.C Section 841 involving the "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A". This was the lead charge for 15.9 percent of all magistrate filings in July.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes" (13%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In July 2012, 1046 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during July there were an additional 120 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 July.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during July 2012referred by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 119 1 2 2 More 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 98 2 1 3 More 18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes 74 3 3 1 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 66 4 11 9 More 18 USC 1349 - Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy 51 5 4 24 More 18 USC 1341 - Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles 37 6 5 7 More 18 USC 1344 - Bank Fraud 32 7 10 5 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 31 8 7 4 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 30 9 8 6 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 22 10 9 8 More Table 2: Top charges filed
"Attempt and conspiracy" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 846) was the most frequent recorded lead charge. "Attempt and conspiracy" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 846) was ranked 2 a year ago, while it was ranked 2 five years ago.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 841. "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 841 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 53.1 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—354.1 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 65.7 percent—was Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1349 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions— 33.5 percent—was for filings where the lead charge was " Bank Fraud " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1344 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In July 2012 the Justice Department said the government brought 455.8 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 Miss, S 2,278 35 1 68 52 More D. C. 2,201 11 2 21 70 More S Dakota 2,068 14 3 34 31 More La, W 1,825 32 4 64 47 More Ind, S 1,735 56 5 25 80 More Montana 1,723 14 6 25 25 More Wyoming 1,543 7 7 75 84 More La, M 1,372 9 8 89 73 More Okla, N 1,310 11 9 56 83 More Mich, E 1,224 67 10 18 26 More Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The Southern District of Mississippi (Jackson)—with 2278 prosecutions as compared with 455.8 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during July 2012.
The District of Washington, D.C. (Washington) ranked 2nd.
District of South Dakota is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Eastern District of Michigan (Detroit), now ranked 10th , and Washington, D.C. (Washington) at 2nd In the same order, these districts ranked 18th and 21st one year ago and 26th and 70th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago— 105.7 percent—was Southern District of Mississippi (Jackson). Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 564.7 percent—was Southern District of Indiana (Indianapolis).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions— 14.1 percent—was Montana . But over the past five years, Middle District of Louisiana (Baton Rouge) showed the largest drop— 28.6 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 July 2012 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Cleland, Robert Hardy Mich, E 45 1 250 673 More Pratt, Tanya Walton Ind, S 43 2 212 - More Cote, Denise L. N. Y., S 42 3 545 486 More Besosa, Francisco Augusto Puer Rico 40 4 109 216 More Guirola, Louis, Jr. Miss, S 25 5 140 67 More O'Grady, Liam Virg, E 25 5 74 - More Whitney, Frank DeArmon N Car, W 18 7 545 4 More Drell, Dee D. La, W 16 8 470 264 More Hochberg, Faith S. N. J. 15 9 187 330 More Friedman, Bernard A. Mich, E 14 10 545 22 More Oliver, Solomon, Jr. Ohio, N 14 10 412 - More Table 4: Top 10 judges
A total of 5 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 11 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge Robert Hardy Cleland in the Eastern District of Michigan (Detroit) ranked 1st with 45 defendants in cases.
Judge Tanya Walton Pratt in the Southern District of Indiana (Indianapolis) ranked 2nd with 43 defendants in cases.
Judge Denise L. Cote in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) ranked 3rd with 42 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: October 1, 2012
