Convictions 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 947 new convictions 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 7.1% over the previous month.
The comparisons of the number of defendants convicted 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 convictions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of convictions was only slightly up (1.9 percent). Convictions over the past year are still much lower than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that convictions of this type are down 2.6 percent from levels reported in 2007.
The leveling out from the levels five years ago in convictions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of convictions 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 convictions of these matters in July 2012 was for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen", accounting for 14.1 percent of convictions. Convictions were also filed for "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (13%), " Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (12.6%), "Project Safe Childhood" (9.8%), "Bank Robbery" (7.2%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (4.9%), "Fraud-Mortgage" (4.3%), "Violence-Indian Country" (3.7%), "Fraud-Financial Institution" (3.5%), "Violence-Other" (3.4%) , "Other Criminal Prosecutions" (2.7%), "Fraud-Other" (2.1%), "Fraud-Health Care" (2%). See Figure 2.
Convictions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In July 2012, 6 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 18 U.S.C Section 2232 involving the "Destruction/removal of property to prevent seizure". This was the lead charge for 33.3 percent of all magistrate convictions in July.
Convictions in U.S. District Courts
In July 2012, 941 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during July there were an additional 0 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 convictions 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 116 1 3 2 More 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 85 2 1 3 More 18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes 68 3 2 1 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 55 4 9 10 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 55 4 4 7 More 18 USC 1341 - Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles 33 6 5 5 More 18 USC 1344 - Bank Fraud 33 6 7 4 More 18 USC 1349 - Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy 27 8 11 38 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 26 9 6 8 More 18 USC 1951 - Hobbs Act 21 10 10 9 More Table 2: Top charges for convictions
"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 3 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 2 a year ago, while it was ranked 1 five years ago.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in convictions—up 32.4 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 1344 that involves " Bank Fraud ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—622.7 percent—was registered for convictions 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 convictions compared to one year ago—down 17.8 percent—was Bank robbery and incidental crimes (Title 18 U.S.C Section 2113 ). This was the same statute that had the largest decrease— 28.4 %—when compared with five years ago.
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In July 2012 the Justice Department said the government obtained 367.8 convictions for every ten million people in the United States.
Understandably, there is great variation in the per capita number of convictions in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.
The districts registering the largest number of convictions per capita for these matters last month are shown in Table 3. Districts must have at least 5 convictions to receive a ranking.
Judicial District Percapita Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago D. C. 2,201 11 1 25 39 More S Dakota 1,625 11 2 35 17 More Alaska 1,577 9 3 76 90 More Montana 1,354 11 4 34 27 More Fla, S 1,223 68 5 3 3 More Ala, S 1,163 8 6 55 63 More Ark, W 1,113 12 7 66 65 More Ark, E 1,053 14 8 61 42 More Nevada 953 21 9 45 14 More La, M 915 6 10 75 88 More Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The District of Washington, D.C. (Washington)—with 2201 convictions as compared with 367.8 convictions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during July 2012.
The District of South Dakota ranked 2nd.
District of Alaska is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Washington, D.C. (Washington), now ranked 1st , and Montana at 4th In the same order, these districts ranked 25th and 34th one year ago and 39th and 27th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of convictions compared to one year ago— 102.1 percent—was Nevada . Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 600 percent—was Alaska .
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 resulting in convictions of this type during July 2012 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Marra, Kenneth A. Fla, S 28 1 30 291 More Titus, Roger W. Maryland 12 2 203 403 More Cardone, Kathleen Texas, W 12 2 534 644 More Evans, Orinda Dale Ga, N 10 4 534 468 More Chasanow, Deborah K. Maryland 10 4 534 734 More Nugent, Donald C. Ohio, N 9 6 136 62 More Barnes, Harry F. Ark, W 8 7 24 403 More Junell, Robert A. Texas, W 8 7 11 5 More Lee, Gerald Bruce Virg, E 8 7 52 3 More Burns, Ellen Bree Conn 7 10 76 79 More Zloch, William J. Fla, S 7 10 136 734 More Cooke, Marcia G. Fla, S 7 10 172 291 More Greer, J. Ronnie Tenn, E 7 10 16 403 More Clark, Ron Texas, E 7 10 203 291 More Briones, David Texas, W 7 10 136 47 More Table 4: Top 10 judges
A total of 4 out of the "top ten" judges were in districts which were in the top ten with the largest number of convictions per capita, while the remaining 11 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 15 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge Kenneth A. Marra in the Southern District of Florida (Miami) ranked 1st with 28 convicted in convictions.
Judges Roger W. Titus in the District of Maryland and Kathleen Cardone in the Western District of Texas (San Antonio) ranked 2nd with 12 convicted in convictions.
Report Generated: October 1, 2012
