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1 Brian Forst, Federal Justice Statistics [1] (1982)

handle is hein.death/fjust0001 and id is 1 raw text is: U.S. Depar nent of Justice Buareau of Justice Statistics ------------------- -- Fedeal Jutc Statistics5 Fifty years ago the Wickersham Cornmission, this country's first national crime comrmission, published a report on criminal justice statistics, noting as a basic principle that accurate statistics are a key to under- standing and improving the adminis- tration of justice. The 1931 report, bearing the name of a former Attorney General, noted also that such statistics did not exist Accurate data are the beginn~ing of wisdom in such a subject, and no such data can be had for the country as a whole, nor have they even been available hitherto with respect to many of the activities of the Federal government in the enforcement of Federal laws. A comprehensive Federal transaction data base would reflect all transactions occurring in the investigative, prosecu- tonial, judicial, and correctional seg- ments of the criminal justice system that describe successive actions taken with respect to th~e same criminal event, ironically, while the Federal government has over the past decade encouraged and assisted the States in developing comprehensive State-level transaction data, the Federal justice Ssystem itself has not: experienced comparable progress toward that end, There exists no body of comprehensive statistics about Federal offenders and little information about the flow of cases from Federal investigators to U.S. Attorneys and on through the Federal court and corrections systems. Cmrhnie criminal justice sta- tsisUssbares, and methods Statistics describing the components of State criminal justice systems are now routinely maintained at the State level Although the systems vary in comprehensiveness and data quality from State to State, they have become increasingly important in every juris- Mlarch 1982 Felix Frankfurter opened a study which he and Roscoe Pound directed in 1921-22, of the administration of criminal justice in eleveland, Ohio with the following words: The in- quiry had two aims; first, to render an accounting of the functioning of this sys.temn, to the fullest extent that social institutions are as yet adapted to statistical appraisal; and, second, to trace to their controlling sources whatever defects in the system the iquiry disclosed, The then Professor of Administrative La~w and then lDean of the Harvard Law School placed at the heart of their scientific study, the exam- ination of 3,236 case records of individual offenders who passed through the Cleveland courts in 1919 and of 1,322 prisoners in the workhouse whose sentences were terminated during 6 months of 1920. In the intervening years many lawyers and social scientists have followed the methodological prec- edent of Pound and Frankfurter, recognizing the enormous diagnostic power of processing or transaction data in understanding the defects of our present-day, but often little-changed, criminal justice syste ins, diction as the needs have increased for improved criminal justice planning, fiscal control, .policy assessment, and response to legislative requests for information (for example, to analyze the impact of determinate sentencing systems), The needs to plan, to support the fiscal process, to assess policy, and to One of the most important legacies of the statistical programs conducted by the Law Enforcement Assistance Ad ministration in the last decade was the progress made by States and cities in developing what are called offender-based transaction statistics, frequently in conjunction with computer-based information systems also linked to criminal history information. With the establishment of the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 1979 came the statutory responsibiity to expand our statistical appraisal to Federal justice systems. We embark on this effort recognizing all the sensitivities that surround such an enterprise-separation of powers, matters of accountability, privacy and confidentiality of data, con- flicting goals and objectives. Yet the obligation to view the Federal system as a whole and to render an accounting of the functioning of this system is there; with a grateful acknowledgment of the help we have received from the Federal agencies named here, this bulletin initiates our efforts to meet that obligation. Benjamin H. Renshaw III Acting Director respond to legislative inquiry exist as well at the Federal level. The data to meet these needs, however, have not been maintained at the Federal level as they have at the State level. Improved justice statistics for the Federal system are needed for more than planning, control, and policy assess- ment at the Federal level. They are

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