Prosecutions for December 2023
Referring Agency: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during December 2023 the government reported 906 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 7.6 percent 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 2023 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was down (-4.3%). Prosecutions over the past year are still much lower than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are down 11.3 percent from levels reported in 2018.
Figure 1. Monthly Trends in Prosecutions
The decrease 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 December 2023 was for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen", accounting for 29.8 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (17.9%), "Project Safe Childhood" (8.4%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (7.2%), "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (5.2%), "Violence-Other" (4.4%), "Violence-Indian Country" (3.5%), "Fraud-Other" (3.2%), "Other Criminal Prosecutions" (2.9%), "Terrorism-Domestic" (2.4%), "Bank Robbery" (2.1%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In December 2023, 137 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 December the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 21 U.S.C Section 841 involving "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A". This was the lead charge for 10.2 percent of all magistrate filings in December.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes" (6.6%), "18 USC 113 - Assaults within maritime and territorial jurisdictions" (5.8%), "18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors" (5.8%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In December 2023, 769 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during December there were an additional 115 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 December.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during December 2023 referred by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 128 1 1 1 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 57 2 2 3 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 56 3 3 2 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 47 4 4 7 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 25 6 5 5 More 18 USC 1951 - Hobbs Act 21 7 7 6 More 18 USC 1752 - Temporary residence and office of President, etc. 17 8 18 - More 18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes 16 9 6 4 More 18 USC 641 - Public money, property or records 13 10 20 41 More 18 USC 1344 - Bank Fraud 13 10 17 13 More 18 USC 2422 - Transport for sex - Coercion and enticement 13 10 19 20 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 1 five years ago.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Firearms; Unlawful acts" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 922. "Firearms; Unlawful acts" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 922 was ranked 2 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 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 3 a year ago, while it was ranked 2 five years ago.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions — up 101.7 percent — compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 1752 that involves " Temporary residence and office of President, etc. ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase — 46.7 percent — was registered for prosecutions under " Public money, property or records " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 641 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago — down 58.5 percent — was " Public money, property or records " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 641 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions — 60.7 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 December 2023 the Justice Department's case-by-case records show that the government brought 318.3 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. 5,895 33 1 5 36 More Texas, W 1,245 81 2 10 10 More La, E 1,091 15 3 47 56 More Ga, M 1,043 18 4 56 64 More Ala, N 874 22 5 67 51 More S Dakota 803 6 6 29 49 More N Mexico 738 13 7 18 11 More Mo, E 659 16 8 46 37 More Wisc, W 633 13 9 86 84 More Ohio, N 631 30 10 4 9 More Texas, E 631 23 10 20 29 More Table 3. Top 10 Districts (per ten million people)
The District of Washington, D.C. (Washington) — with 5895 prosecutions as compared with 318.3 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States — was the most active during December 2023. The District of Washington, D.C. (Washington) was ranked 5 a year ago.
The Western District of Texas (San Antonio) ranked 2nd. The Western District of Texas (San Antonio) was ranked 10 a year ago, while it was ranked 10 for most frequent use five years ago.
Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans) is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were New Mexico , now ranked 7th , and Eastern District of Texas (Tyler) at 10th In the same order, these districts ranked 18th and 20th one year ago and 11th and 29th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago — 78.1 percent — was Northern District of Alabama (Birmingham). Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth — 214.7 percent — was Washington, D.C. (Washington).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions — 30.4 percent — was South Dakota . But over the past five years, New Mexico showed the largest drop — 28.3 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 December 2023 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Pitman, Robert Texas, W 22 1 210 127 More Treadwell, Marc Thomas Ga, M 15 2 554 - More Jordan, Sean D. Texas, E 12 3 46 - More Liburdi, Michael Thomas Arizona 11 4 86 - More Conley, William Martin Wisc, W 11 4 133 400 More Delgado-Colon, Aida M. Puer Rico 9 6 18 127 More Urbanski, Michael Francis Virg, W 9 6 - 468 More Fallon, Eldon E. La, E 8 8 210 249 More Altman, Roy Kalman Fla, S 7 9 24 - More Delgado Hernandez, Pedro Alberto Puer Rico 7 9 3 12 More Table 4. Top Ten 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 5 judges were from other districts.
Judge Robert Pitman in the Western District of Texas (San Antonio) ranked 1st with 22 defendants in cases.
Judge Marc Thomas Treadwell in the Middle District of Georgia (Macon) ranked 2nd with 15 defendants in cases.
Judge Sean D. Jordan in the Eastern District of Texas (Tyler) ranked 3rd with 12 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: February 7, 2024
