U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D.C.
Administrative Office of the United States Courts
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Executive Office for the United States Attorneys
Federal Bureau of Prisons
United States Sentencing Commission
COMPARING CASE PROCESSING STATISTICS
Information describing Federal criminal case processing is
decentralized. Each of the Federal criminal justice agencies
collects similar data describing criminal case processing events.
However, based on the specific needs and missions of the
individual agencies, different definitions are used to tabulate
and report these data. Therefore, statistics published or
reported by the agencies are not directly comparable. The
differences in reported statistics are primarily due to the way
in which the agencies:
* Define defendants processed
* Classify offense committed
* Classify disposition and sentence imposed.
Comparison of the number of defendants processed
by Federal agencies, 1994
All offenses
Executive Adminis- U.S.
Office trative Senten- Federal
for U.S. Office of cing Bureau
Defen- U.S. At- the U.S. Commis- of
dants-- torneys Courts sion Prisons
Cases filed 51,264 62,956 NA NA
Cases ter-
minated 49,792 62,155 NA NA
Convicted
and sen-
tenced 42,459 49,717 39,971 NA
Imprisoned 30,874 33,554 29,062 34,480
Drug trafficking offenses only
Executive Adminis- U.S.
Office trative Senten- Federal
for U.S. Office of cing Bureau
Defen- U.S. At- the U.S. Commis- of
dants-- torneys Courts sion Prisons
Cases filed 18,039 20,144 NA NA
Cases ter-
minated 17,603 19,124 NA NA
Convicted
and sen-
tenced 14,971 16,005 15,491 NA
Imprisoned 13,641 14,653 14,213 14,665
The table illustrates how these differences affect
the total number of defendants and the number of
drug trafficking defendants recorded by the
agencies at various stages of the Federal criminal
justice system. For example, the number of
defendants in cases filed that is reported by the
Federal judiciary is higher than that reported by
the U.S. attorneys. Unlike the Federal judiciary,
the U.S. attorneys report only cases filed before
U.S. district court judges (primarily felonies);
cases filed before U.S. magistrate judges
(primarily misdemeanors) are reported separately.
As part of an interagency effort to reconcile the
differences in statistics reported by Federal
criminal justice agencies, this report identifies
the primary differences in the case processing
statistics. Additionally, the agencies are working
to develop a methodology that will facilitate the
comparison of criminal case processing statistics
across agencies. Further, the Bureau of Justice
Statistics will continue to publish its Compendium
of Federal Justice Statistics, which, by using
data obtained from each Federal agency, reports
statistics describing each phase of the Federal
criminal justice system.
Federal criminal justice agencies
The Department of Justice collects data on the
workload and activities of the United States
attorneys. According to the Executive Office for
the U.S. Attorneys, the U.S. attorneys initiate
approximately 95 percent of the criminal cases
prosecuted by the Department. Litigating divisions
of the Department handle the remaining cases.
While many of the cases initiated by the
litigating divisions are included in the U.S.
attorneys' database, each division maintains its
own separate data collection system to track cases
processed.
The Administrative Office of the United States
Courts collects data on the caseload and
activities of the Federal judiciary including
district court judges, magistrate judges, and the
probation and pretrial services system. The
Federal judiciary handles all Federal criminal
cases whether initiated by the U.S. attorney
offices in each judicial district or by other
divisions within the Department of Justice.
The United States Sentencing Commission, while not
collecting workload statistics, collects data on
defendants convicted in Federal courts who were
sentenced pursuant to the provisions of the
Sentencing Reform Act of 1984. It is estimated
that approximately 86 percent of all defendants
convicted are sentenced pursuant to the Federal
sentencing guidelines.
The Bureau of Prisons collects data on Federal
prisoners. Reported statistics include size
(including admissions, releases, and standing
count) and composition of the Federal prison
population.
Comparing published Federal case processing
statistics
While each of the Federal agencies processing
criminal defendants generally reports on the same
individuals, many of the case processing
statistics describing these individuals vary
across agencies. The differences in these case
processing statistics are attributable, in part,
to the differing needs and missions of the
agencies. For example, in the U.S. attorneys
reports, a case involving drugs that might
otherwise be classified as a drug trafficking
offense based on the statute(s) charged might be
classified as a Project Triggerlock offense if
specific elements of the case indicate that the
defendant was a repeat weapons offender. The
primary differences in data collection techniques
are described below.
Defendants processed
Even though there is an identifiable cohort of
individuals processed in the criminal justice
system, the definition of a defendant can vary
across agencies. The U.S. attorneys and the
Federal judiciary have similar definitions of a
criminal defendant. The U.S. attorneys define a
criminal defendant as person for whom a
significant paper has been filed in Federal court
before either a U.S. district court judge or a
U.S. magistrate judge. The Federal judiciary
defines a criminal defendant as a person against
whom a U.S. district court judge or a U.S.
magistrate judge has taken a specific action.
(While the U.S. attorneys and the Federal
judiciary define defendants in similar ways, the
U.S. attorneys report separately the number of
cases filed before U.S. magistrate judges.) For
both the U.S. attorneys and the Federal judiciary,
an individual person may be counted more than once
if the defendant appeared in more than one case.
The Sentencing Commission, on the other hand,
defines a defendant as a person for whom a
sentencing event has occurred. Unlike the U.S.
attorneys and the Federal judiciary, the
Sentencing Commission counts individual defendants
more than once only if the defendant was sentenced
on more than one occasion, i.e., multiple charges
against the defendant were not consolidated for
sentencing. Therefore, defendant counts reported
by the Sentencing Commission are typically lower
than those reported by the U.S. attorneys and the
Federal judiciary.
Offenses committed
The Federal code defines hundreds of laws for
which defendants can be criminally prosecuted.
While all agencies collect statute- specific
offense data, data describing criminal statutes
are typically consolidated into more descriptive
offense categories for reporting or management
purposes. Even though each agency consolidates the
Federal statutes using the same generic criteria,
like the substance of the offense (e.g., murder,
fraud, and drugs), the composition of these
categories often varies by agency. Unlike offense
categories reported by the Federal judiciary, the
U.S. Sentencing Commission, and the Bureau of
Prisons, those reported by the U.S. attorneys are
not based entirely on statutes. The U.S. attorneys
assign program categories and charges according to
the type of criminal action or specific
departmental initiative. For some offenses,
particularly fraud offenses, the U.S. attorneys'
program categories are more descriptive than the
offense categories used by other agencies. For
example, an offense charged under a specific fraud
statute would be assigned a program category by
the U.S. attorneys that details a specific type of
fraud, e.g., health care fraud; or, an offense
charged under a weapons statute might be assigned
a program category that indicates Project
Triggerlock if the defendant was a repeat weapons
offender.
The U.S. attorneys assign the most significant, or
most serious, offense in a manner that also
differs from the Federal judiciary, the Sentencing
Commission, and the Bureau of Prisons. The U.S.
attorneys assign the most significant offense
based on the priority of a particular program
category within the Department of Justice, whereas
the other agencies define the most significant
offense based on the offense statutory maximum
(or, in the case of the Bureau of Prisons, the
actual sentence imposed).
Disposition and sentence imposed
Only the U.S. attorneys and the Federal judiciary
report on the number of defendants terminated
during a given reporting period. In describing the
offenses for which defendants were convicted,
classification of the terminating offense differs
by agency. The U.S. attorneys report the original
program category assigned regardless of whether
the defendant was convicted of the charge
associated with that program category. The other
agencies report the most serious offense for which
the defendant was actually adjudicated.
Each agency reports whether imprisonment or
probation was imposed and the duration of the term
as well as whether a fine and/or restitution was
ordered. However, the reporting of sentences
imposed has a different priority within each
agency. For instance, in furtherance of its
mission to promulgate the Federal sentencing
guidelines, the Commission collects the most
detailed data on sentences imposed and the
mechanisms for determining the sentence.
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Recognizing the incomparability of case processing
statistics across Federal agencies, in 1982, the
Bureau of Justice Statistics implemented the
Federal Justice Statistics Program. The goals of
the Federal Justice Statistics Program are to
provide uniform case processing statistics across
different stages of the Federal criminal justice
system and to track individual defendants from one
stage of the process to another. Using data
obtained from each of the Federal agencies, the
Bureau of Justice Statistics compiles
comprehensive information describing individuals
processed in the Federal criminal justice system.
Uniform definitions are applied to commonly used
statistics describing data from each stage of the
criminal justice process. Further, because the
definitions used in the Federal Justice Statistics
Program are consistent with the definitions used
by other Bureau of Justice Statistics programs,
the comparison of Federal and State case
processing statistics is facilitated.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics publishes three
series of publications describing the Federal
criminal justice system: the Compendium of
Federal Justice Statistics, an annual publication
that describes events occurring in the Federal
criminal justice system; Federal Criminal Case
Processing, also an annual publication that
reports case processing statistics from several
years permitting the examination of trends in the
Federal criminal justice system; and, a series of
Special Reports addressing specific aspects of the
Federal criminal justice system, specific
offenses, or other special issues of interest.