Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Role in Criminal Justice Data Collection and Dissemination

June 15, 2021

Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Role in Criminal Justice Data

Collection and Dissemination

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), established in 1979,

is an agency within the Department of Justice (DOJ), Office

of Justice Programs (OJP). Its mission is “to collect,

analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime,

criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of

justice systems at all levels of government. These data are

critical to federal, state, and local policymakers in

combating crime and ensuring that justice is both efficient

and evenhanded.” BJS facilitates its mission by operating

statistical, grant-making, and dissemination activities. Many

BJS projects involve a combination of these activities. As

debates over criminal justice in the United States continue

to unfold, policymakers may further examine BJS’ role in

data collection and dissemination to help inform these

discussions.

Statistical Activities

BJS publishes annual data on crime victimization,

corrections populations, and federal criminal offenders and

case processing. The Criminal Justice Statistics Program is

the base program through which BJS seeks to achieve its

mission.

BJS also publishes periodic data on issues such as the

administration of law enforcement agencies and

correctional facilities, state court case processing,

prosecutorial practices and policies, characteristics of

correctional populations, justice-system expenditures and

employment, and special studies on criminal justice issues.

For instance, the Survey of State Attorneys General Offices

was specifically designed to collect data on special topics

over which state Attorneys General have jurisdiction, such

as human trafficking and white collar crime.

Grant Activities

BJS administers a number of grant programs broadly aimed

at enhancing the completeness, timeliness, accuracy, and

dissemination of criminal justice data. These include grants

to support programs for data collection and processing as

well as statistical and methodological research. Grants can

support state, local, or tribal governments, for profit and

nonprofit organizations, and institutions of higher

education. For instance, the State Justice Statistics Program

for Statistical Analysis Centers supports collection,

analysis, and dissemination of statistical information on

crime and criminal justice at the state and local levels, and

the National Census of Victim Service Providers funds data

collection with research partners on the availability and use

of services targeted at supporting victims of crime or abuse.

Dissemination Activities

BJS supports several programs, in some cases in

partnership with agencies such as the National Institute of

Justice, that facilitate its mission to disseminate information

on crime and criminal justice.

The National Criminal Justice Reference Service provides

access to BJS and other OJP reports as well as to

information specialists who can assist with criminal justice

statistics and data.

The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) is

a source of archived datasets (from DOJ agencies as well as

from scholars and researchers) on crime and criminal

justice. It highlights data relating to national criminal

justice statistics, such as data from the National Crime

Victimization Survey and the Annual Survey of Jails, as

well as to special topics such as gangs, terrorism, and hate

crimes.

The Federal Justice Statistics Resource Center compiles

data from BJS’ Federal Justice Statistics Program on

suspects, defendants, and federal prisoners processed in the

federal criminal justice system. It also has a Federal

Criminal Case Processing Statistics data tool to help users

analyze these data.

BJS also supports the Infobase of State Activities and

Research, which is maintained by the Justice Research and

Statistics Association. It contains information about the

research, activities, and publications of the various state

Statistical Analysis Centers, which conduct research and

analyze statistics on criminal justice issues at the state and

local levels.

Cross-Cutting Data Efforts

As noted, BJS’ base program is the Criminal Justice

Statistics Program, which collects data on corrections, the

federal justice system, tribal crime and justice, law

enforcement, prosecution and the judiciary, and

victimization. BJS also participates in activities related to

data collection and improvement outside of its base

program. These activities may include collaborations or

grants with outside entities, such as the National Crime

Statistics Exchange Initiative (NCS-X), the National

Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP), the

National Instant Criminal Background Check System

(NICS), the Record Improvement Program (NARIP), and

the Prison Rape Prevention and Prosecution Program.

As part of these programs, BJS uses several modes of data

collection including both BJS-managed collections and

those completed by outside agencies and grantees. BJS

directly administers several studies; some of these are

conducted annually (e.g., the Annual Survey of Jails) and

others periodically (e.g., Census of Local Jails). BJS also

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Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Role in Criminal Justice Data Collection and Dissemination

receives and analyzes data collected by outside agencies

such as the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Marshals Service,

the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Executive Office

for U.S. Attorneys, the Administrative Office of the U.S.

Courts, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and the Bureau of

Prisons.

BJS publications often lag by a year or more after data

collection, which is typical for work with large datasets that

require careful cleaning and analysis. For example, the

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) collects nationwide

crime statistics each year—starting in 2021, this is

conducted through its National Incident-Based Reporting

System (NIBRS)—and the publication of these data

typically occurs by the fall of the following year. The delay

on data releases and publications vary at BJS. For instance,

BJS’ releases during the first five months of 2021 have

reported on data collected between 2000 and 2020. During

the remainder of 2021, BJS expects to publish products and

third-party reports from data collections that occurred

between 2012 and 2020.

Potential Barriers to Data Collection

BJS has broad authority to collect, analyze, and disseminate

information and statistics on crime and criminal justice. It

may also make grants to or contract with outside entities to

help carry out these activities. Nonetheless, BJS has

received criticism that its data collection efforts do not

capture the full scope of crime and functions of the criminal

justice system and that data and related analyses might not

be made available in a timely manner. Statutory authorities

do not appear to be the barrier to data collection, analysis,

and dissemination. Rather, some barriers may include

funding, priorities, and hurdles to establishing memoranda

of agreement (MOA) with relevant entities.

Funding

Although annual BJS funding has fluctuated, it has

remained around $44.0 million annually over the past

decade. Congress provided $45.0 million for BJS for

FY2021 through the Commerce, Justice, Science, and

Related Agencies Appropriations Act (P.L. 116-260). A

report from the Institute for Excellence in Government

concluded that federal investment in BJS is not sufficient to

meet its responsibilities and assessed that this investment is

not equal to that made in other federal statistical agencies

such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In addition to BJS’ own budget, those of partner agencies

and organizations may ultimately affect the availability and

completeness of BJS statistics on crime and criminal

justice. Many federal crime data collections, including

those directed by BJS, rely on the voluntary participation of

state, local, and tribal governments and agencies. Data

collection activities, specifically those that are perceived by

these entities to be difficult or costly, can take a back seat to

state and local concerns.

Data Collection Priorities

BJS collects data about a broad array of topics related to the

criminal justice system in the United States and Indian

country. This includes information on incidences of crime;

offenders and victims of crime; operations of criminal

justice agencies, courts, and law enforcement; jails and

other correctional facilities; capital punishment and deaths

while in the custody of juvenile and criminal justice

entities; parole and recidivism; firearms; appeals; juvenile

justice; and tribal justice.

BJS notes that it prioritizes using its base funding to

accomplish the following goals: collecting, analyzing, and

disseminating reliable and objective statistics on the United

States’ criminal justice system; supporting state and local

jurisdictions in improving their justice information systems;

collaborating with other government agencies and

organizations to develop standards for justice statistics; and

assessing the availability and adequacy of crime-related

data as well as opportunities to improve data collection and

analyses.

BJS does not collect, analyze, and disseminate data on

every criminal justice topic. And, initiating or expanding

BJS’ work in particular criminal justice areas to fill these

gaps could be a significant undertaking that may require

additional funding or a diversion of resources from existing

projects. Some have expressed concern that BJS funding is

already insufficient to carry out current data collection,

analysis, and dissemination duties in a timely manner and

that reported staffing shortages may contribute to this lag.

MOA Challenges

As noted, BJS may make grants to or enter into contracts or

agreements with outside entities to help carry out data

collection and analysis. BJS may also request information

and data from federal agencies as needed to carry out the

agency’s duties, and these agencies are required to provide

the necessary information to BJS. For instance, under this

authority BJS entered into an MOA with the FBI to

establish a BJS website containing the FBI’s Uniform

Crime Reporting (UCR) program data. The agreement

allowed for a publicly available UCR Data Tool that

facilitates the analysis of UCR data in furtherance of BJS’

mission.

Some have suggested that BJS establish MOA with federal

agencies other than those with a traditional criminal justice

role in order to get a more comprehensive view of specific

criminal justice issue areas, such as white collar crime.

Certain crimes can involve criminal, civil, and regulatory

violations, and a comprehensive understanding of these

crimes might benefit from enforcement data in these

various realms. Establishing MOAs with agencies for

sharing data could run up against certain hurdles such as

agencies’ reluctance to share data, agencies’ concerns over

risk from external analysis of their data, prioritization of the

data sharing project, concerns about budgetary costs

involved in a data sharing project, challenges surrounding

establishing a BJS database to receive and analyze the data,

and concerns over data security, among others.

Emily J. Hanson, Analyst in Social Policy

Kristin Finklea, Specialist in Domestic Security

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Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Role in Criminal Justice Data Collection and Dissemination

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