Federal Criminal Case Processing, 1998 with trends 1982-98 ... · Federal Criminal Case Processing....

U.S. Department of JusticeOffice of Justice Programs

Federal Justice Statistics: Reconciled Data

Federal Criminal CaseProcessing, 1998With trends 1982-98

Bureau of Justice Statistics

1994 1995 1996 1997 19980

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

Suspects investigated

Defendants charged

Defendants convicted

Defendants imprisoned

Federal criminal case processing, 1994-98

Bureau of Justice Statistics

This report is one in a series. More recent editions may be available. To view a list of all in the series go to the http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pubalp2.htm#fccprd

Federal Criminal CaseProcessing, 1998With trends 1982-98

Federal Justice Statistics: Reconciled Data

August 1999, NCJ 169277

U.S. Department of JusticeOffice of Justice ProgramsBureau of Justice Statistics

Highlights, 1

Introduction, 3

Federal criminal case processing,1998, 5Tables and figures

Methodology, 15The Federal justice database

Table construction and interpretation

Offense classifications

Classification level

Estimations

Statistics appearing in Federal CriminalCase Processing, 1998

Appendix, 21Tables

Contents iii

Contents

Federal criminal case processing,1998, 5October 1, 1997 - September 30, 19981. Suspects in criminal matters investi-

gated by U.S. attorneys, by offense

2. Disposition of suspects in mattersconcluded by U.S. attorneys, byoffense

3. Defendants in cases proceededagainst in U.S. district courts, byoffense

4. Disposition of defendants in casesterminating in U.S. district courts, byoffense

5. Sanctions imposed on offendersconvicted and sentenced in U.S.district courts, by offense

6. Criminal appeals filed, by type ofcriminal case and offense

7. Offenders under Federal supervi-sion, by offense

8. Federal prison admissions and re-leases, by offense

Methodology, 15M.1. Breakouts of main category

offenses

M.2. Source agencies for data tables inFederal Criminal Case Processing

Appendix, 21A.1. Suspects in criminal matters investi-

gated by U.S. attorneys, by offense,1994-1998

A.2. Suspects in criminal matters con-cluded by U.S. attorneys, by of-fense, 1994-1998

A.3. Suspects in criminal matters con-cluded by U.S. attorneys: Numberprosecuted before U.S. district courtjudge, by offense, 1994-1998

A.4. Suspects in criminal matters con-cluded by U.S. magistrates, by of-fense, 1994-1998

A.5. Suspects in criminal matters con-cluded by U.S. attorneys: Numberdeclined prosecution, by offense,1994-1998

A.6. Defendants in cases proceededagainst in U.S. district courts, by of-fense, 1994-1998

A.7. Defendants in cases terminating inU.S. district courts, by offense,1994-1998

A.8. Defendants in cases terminating inU.S. district courts: Percent con-victed, by offense, 1994-1998

A.9. Offenders convicted and sentencedin U.S. district courts, by offense,1994-1998

A.10. Offenders convicted and sentencedin U.S. district courts: Number sen-tenced to prison, by offense,1994-1998

A.11. Criminal appeals filed, by offense,1994-1998

A.12. Offenders convicted and sentencedin U.S. district courts: Number sen-tenced to probation only, byoffense, 1994-1998

A.13. Offenders convicted and sentencedin U.S. district courts: Mean num-ber of months of imprisonment im-posed, by offense, 1994-1998

A.14. Offenders under Federal supervi-sion, by offense, 1994-1998

A.15. Population at the end of the year inFederal prisons, by offense,1994-1998

iv Federal Criminal Case Processing, 1998

Tables

Highlights, 1Figure H.1. Number of suspects in crimi-

nal matters investigated byU.S. attorneys, October 1,1997 - September 30, 1998

Figure H.2. Number of offenders underFederal correctional supervi-sion, September 30, 1998

Federal criminal case processing,1998, 5Figure 1. Number of suspects in crimi-

nal matters investigated byU.S. attorneys, by categoryof offense, 1982-1998

Figure 2. Number of defendants incriminal cases terminated inU.S. district court, by cate-gory of offense, 1982-1998

Figure 3. Defendants convicted in U.S.district court: Percentagesentenced to prison, by cate-gory of offense, 1982-1998

Figure 4. Number of offenders underFederal supervision, by typeof supervision, 1987-1998

Figure 5. U.S. district court commit-ments and first releases fromFederal prison, 1985-1998

Contents v

Figures

Z During 1998, U.S. attorneys initiated investiga-tions involving 115,692 suspects for possibleviolations of Federal law. Almost a third (32%)of those investigated were suspected of a drugviolation.

Z Between 1994 and 1998, investigations initi-ated by U.S. attorneys have increased 16.5%— from 99,251 to 115,692. Investigations forimmigration violations increased from 5,526 to14,114; for drug offenses, investigations in-creased from 29,311 to 36,355.

Z During 1998, U.S. attorneys declined to prose-cute a smaller proportion of those investigated.Declinations decreased from 36% of mattersconcluded during 1994 to 27% during 1998.

Z Criminal charges were filed against 78,172 de-fendants in U.S. district courts during 1998 — a 25% increase since 1994.

Z The number of defendants charged with an immigration offense increased from 2,453 to9,254 and the number charged with a drug offense increased from 20,275 to 28,021.

Z Drug prosecutions have comprised an increas-ing proportion of the Federal criminal caseload— from 21% of defendants during 1982 to 35%during 1998.

Z Under the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, theproportion of defendants sentenced to prisonincreased from 54% during 1988 to 71% during1998. The proportion of drug offenders sen-tenced to prison increased from 79% to 92%.

Z Prison sentences imposed increased from 55.1months during 1988 to 58.9 months during1998. For drug offenses, prison sentences in-creased from 71.3 months to 78.7 months; forweapons offenses, sentences imposed in-creased from 52.3 months to 101.3 months.

Z During 1998, 92,813 offenders were underFederal community supervision. Supervisedrelease has become the primary form of super-vision in the Federal system: 59.1% of offend-ers were on supervised release compared to34.7% on probation, and 6.3% remaining onparole.

Z On September 30, 1998, 107,912 offenderswere serving a prison sentence in Federalprison; 58% were incarcerated for a drug of-fense; 11%, for a violent offense; 8% for aweapons offense; 8% for a property offense,7% for an immigration offense; and 8% for allother offenses.

Highlights 1

0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000

Suspects investigated

Defendants prosecuted

Offenders convicted

Offenders sentencedto prison*

Criminal appeals filed

115,692

77,236

60,958

42,405

10,535

Number of suspects in criminal matters investigated by U.S.attorneys, October 1, 1997 - September 30, 1998

Figure H.1.

Figure H.2.

*Prison includes offenders given life and death sentences, and includes new lawoffenders given prison-community split sentences (prison and conditions of alter-native community confinement).

0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000

Prison

Supervised release

Probation

Parole

107,912

54,822

32,164

5,827

Number of offenders under Federal correctional supervision,September 30, 1998

Highli ghts

Federal Criminal Case Processing,1998, first in an annual series, pro-vides statistics that describe defen-dants processed at different stages ofthe Federal criminal justice system forthe 12-month period ending Septem-ber 30, 1998. Also included are fig-ures describing trends in Federalcriminal case processing during the1982-98 period.

The data presented are compiledfrom the BJS Federal justicedatabase. The Federal justice data-base is comprised of data provided bythe Executive Office for the U.S. Attor-neys, the Administrative Office of theU.S. Courts, the U.S SentencingCommission, and the Federal Bureauof Prisons. The Administrative Officeof the U.S. Courts provides data de-scribing the Federal court docket —criminal, civil, and appellate — as wellas pretrial services, probation, parole,and supervised release.

The Federal justice database may beobtained electronically from the Fed-eral Justice Statistics Resource Cen-ter or on CD-ROM from the BJSClearinghouse. For more detailed in-formation on obtaining the Federaljustice database, see page ii.

Statistics presented in this report in-clude the number of suspects investi-gated by U.S. attorneys for possibleviolations of Federal law, the outcomeof U.S. attorney investigations (prose-cution or declination), the number ofdefendants prosecuted in U.S. districtcourts, the outcome of criminal cases(convicted, not convicted), sanctionsimposed on defendants convicted(type of sentence imposed and lengthof imprisonment), the number andtype of criminal appeals filed, and thenumber of offenders under Federalcorrectional supervision — prison,probation, parole, and supervised re-lease. A related publication, the Com-pendium of Federal Justice Statistics,while presenting many of the samestatistics as those included in this re-port, provides more detail — includingstatistics on up to 40 offense catego-ries and statistics on additional caseprocessing concepts such as pretrial

release and demographic characteris-tics of offenders.

Several case processing statisticspresented in this report have previ-ously been reported by the agencies.However, because individual agenciesuse different criteria to collect, tabu-late, and report on case processingevents, statistics published by each ofthe agencies may not be directly com-parable. In this report, BJS has at-tempted to reconcile differences indata collection and reporting in orderto present comparable statisticsacross stages of the Federal criminaljustice system. For a description ofthe reconciliation effort and the meth-odology employed, see ComparingCase Processing Statistics (NCJ-169274) and Reconciling FederalCriminal Case Processing Statistics(NCJ-171680).

Since many terms and concepts usedin this report have specialized mean-ings — either because they refer tospecific provisions of Federal law orthey refer to procedures used byagencies supplying the data — read-ers are encouraged to refer to theglossary of the Compendium of Fed-eral Justice Statistics for definitions of concepts.

Introduction 3

Introduction

Federal criminal case processing, 1998

Federal criminal case processing, 1998 5

TablesOctober 1, 1997 – September 30, 1998

1. Suspects in criminal matters investigatedby U.S. attorneys, by offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2. Disposition of suspects in matters concludedby U.S. attorneys, by offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3. Defendants in cases proceeded againstin U.S. district courts, by offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

4. Disposition of defendants in casesterminating in U.S. district courts, by offense . . . . . . . . . . 10

5. Sanctions imposed on offenders convictedand sentenced in U.S. district courts,by offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

6. Criminal appeals filed, by type of criminalcase and offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

7. Offenders under Federal supervision,by offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

8. Federal prison admissions and releases,by offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Figures1. Number of suspects in criminal matters

investigated by U.S. attorneys, by categoryof offense, 1982-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2. Number of defendants in criminal casesterminated in U.S. district court, by categoryof offense, 1982-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3. Defendants convicted in U.S. district court: Percentage sentenced to prison, by categoryof offense, 1982-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

4. Number of offenders under Federal super-vision, by type of supervision, 1987-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

5. U.S. district court commitments and first releasesfrom Federal prison, 1985-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

dIn this table, "Violent offenses" may includenon-negligent manslaughter and some non-violent sex offenses; "Fraudulent property" ex-

aBased on the decision of the assistant U.S. at-torney responsible for the matter.bPercent based on number whose offense cate-

1,420Unknown or indeterminable offenses

11.813,529Other1.01,174Tax law violationd

12.414,114Immigration4.34,907Weapons

29.533,724Other5.76,541Regulator y

35.240,265Public-order offenses

31.836,355Drug offenses

3.33,797Other d

23.026,328Fraudulent d

26.430,125Property offenses

6.67,527Violent offenses d

100%115,692All offenses c

PercentbNumber

Suspects in criminal matters received by U.S. attorneys

Most serious offense investigateda

Table 1. Suspects in criminal matters investigated by U.S. attorneys,by offense, October 1, 1997 - September 30, 1998

Suspects in criminal matters concluded

Table 2. Disposition of suspects in matters concluded by U.S. attorneys, by offense, October 1, 1997 - September 30, 1998


1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 19980

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

Property

Public-order

Drug

Violent

All offenses

Number of suspects

Public-order

Property

Drug

Violent

Number of suspects in criminal matters investigated by U.S. attorneys,by category of offense, 1982-1998

Note: Data for 1982 through 1993 are estimated from calendar year data; see Methodology. Beginning in 1994,data are reported on the Federal fiscal year running from October 1 through September 30.

Figure 1

eIncludes suspects whose offense category could not be determined. See Meth-odology for a listing of detailed offense categories within each major offensecategory.fIn this table, "Violent offenses" may include non-negligent manslaughter andsome non-violent sex offenses; "Fraudulent property" excludes tax fraud; "Othernon-fraudulent property" excludes fraudulent property and includes destruction ofproperty and trespass; and "Tax law violation" includes tax fraud.

aBased on the decision of the assistant U.S. attorney responsible for thematter.bIncludes suspects whose cases were filed in U.S. district court before a dis-trict court judge. cIncludes defendants in misdemeanor cases which were terminated in U.S.district court before a U.S. magistrate.dIncludes suspects whose matters were declined for prosecution by U.S. attor-neys upon review.

23.324648.451128.22981,055Unknown or indeterminable offenses

30.43,71539.34,79530.33,69812,208Other33.13392.32464.66611,024Tax law violationf2.837017.92,37479.310,50513,249Immigration

27.01,2792.411670.63,3474,742Weapons18.35,70323.47,30958.318,21131,223Other63.93,4707.138628.91,5715,427Regulator y25.09,17321.07,69554.019,78236,650Public-order offenses

18.16,1644.61,56177.326,26633,991Drug offenses

34.21,28413.952051.91,9453,749Otherf40.79,6537.01,65152.312,40823,712Fraudulent f39.810,9377.92,17152.314,35327,461Property offenses

33.02,2664.430562.54,2946,865Violent offenses f

27.2%28,78611.5%12,24361.3%64,993106,022All offenses e

PercentNumberPercentNumberPercentNumberMost serious offense investigatedaDeclined prosecutiond

Concluded

by U S magistratec

Prosecuted beforeU.S. district court judgeb

Total

number ofsuspects

8 Federal Criminal Case Processing, 1998

dIn this table, "Violent offenses" may includenon- negligent manslaughter and some non-violent sex offenses; "Fraudulent property"excludes tax fraud; "Other non-fraudulentproperty" excludes fraudulent property and in-cludes destruction of property and trespass;"Tax law violation" includes tax fraud; and"Misdemeanors" include misdemeanors,petty offenses, and unknown offense levels.

aBased on the offense carrying the most severe statu-tory maximum penalty.bPercent distribution based on the defendants forwhom an offense category could be determined.cIncludes defendants for whom an offense categorycould not be determined. See Methodology for a list-ing of detailed offense categories within each major of-fense category.

149Unknown or indeterminable offenses

17.013,254Misdemeanors d

3.12,457Other0.9673Tax law violationd

11.89,254Immigration5.54,287Weapons

21.316,671Other1.71,359Regulator y

23.118,030Public-order offenses

2.21,703Possession and other33.726,318Trafficking35.828,021Drug offenses

3.32,554Other d

15.912,401Fraudu lentd

19.114,955Property offenses

4.83,763Violent offensesd

82.964,769Felonies

100%78,172All offenses cPercentbNumber

Defendants in cases commencedMost serious offense chargeda

Table 3. Defendants in cases proceeded against in U.S. district courts,by offense, October 1, 1997 - September 30, 1998


within each major offense category.fIn this table, "Violent offenses" may include non-negligent manslaughter and some non-violent sex offenses; "Fraudulent property" excludes tax fraud; "Other non-fraudulent prop-erty" excludes fraudulent property and includes destruction of property and trespass; "Taxlaw violation" includes tax fraud; and "Misdemeanors" include misdemeanors, petty of-fenses, and unknown offense levels.

aBased on the offense carrying the most severe statutory maximumpenalty.bIncludes nolle contendere.cIncludes bench and jury trials.dIncludes defendants in cases dismissed for lack of evidence or lack ofFederal interest.eIncludes defendants for whom an offense category could not be deter-mined. See Methodology for a listing of detailed offense categories

116173868984.0106Unknown or indeterminable offenses

5352,5933,1285559,82010,37576.813,503Misdemeanors f

482452931941,8252,01987.32,312Other637435869475294.6795Tax law violationf

13403416677,5027,56994.87,985Immigration844064903402,8203,16086.63,650Weapons

1511,0911,24265912,84113,50091.614,742Other20146166531,1341,18787.71,353Regulator y

1711,2371,40871213,97514,68791.316,095Public-order offenses

13102115901,3601,45092.71,565Possession and other2402,2102,4501,41218,00519,41788.821,867Trafficking2532,3122,5651,50219,36520,86789.123,432Drug offenses

342172511781,9322,11089.42,361Otherf1269761,1024779,2759,75289.810,854Fraudulent f1601,1931,35365511,20711,86289.813,215Property offenses

702703402652,8133,07890.13,418Violent offenses f

6545,0125,6663,13447,36050,49489.956,160Felonies

1,1907,6218,8113,69257,26660,95887.4%69,769All offenses eAcquittedcDismisseddTotalTrialcPleabTotal

Number not convictedNumber convictedPercentconvicted

Number of defendantsMost serious offense chargeda

Defendants in cases terminating in U.S. district courts

Table 4. Disposition of defendants in cases terminating in U.S. district courts, by offense, October 1, 1997 - September 30, 1998


40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 19980

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

Public-order

Property

Drug

Property

Public-order

Violent

Number of defendants

Drug

All offenses

Violent

Number of defendants in criminal cases terminated in U.S. district court, bycategory of offense, 1982-1998

Note: Data for 1982 through 1993 are based on a 12-month calendar year reporting period ending December 31.Beginning in 1994, data are reported on the Federal fiscal year running from October 1 through September 30.

Figure 2

fCalculations exclude offenders given life or death sentences. For new law of-fenders given prison-community split sentences, imprisonment length includesprison sentences only.gIncludes offenders for whom offense categories could not be determined or forwhom a sentence was unknown. See Methodology for a listing of detailed of-fense categories within each major offense category.hIn this table, "Violent offenses" may include non-negligent manslaughter andsome non-violent sex offenses; "Fraudulent property" excludes tax fraud; "Othernon-fraudulent property" excludes fraudulent property and includes destruction ofproperty and trespass; "Tax law violation" includes tax fraud; and"Misdemeanors" include misdemeanors, petty offenses, and unknown offensel l

aBased on the disposition offense with the most severe sentence.bIncludes offenders given life and death sentences, and includes new lawoffenders given prison-community split sentences (prison and conditions ofalternative community confinement).cIncludes offenders given mixed sentences of prison plus probation; appli-cable only to offenders sentenced pursuant to laws applicable prior to theSentencing Reform Act of 1984.dIncludes offenders given probation plus conditions of confinement, suchas home confinement or intermittent confinement.eIncludes offenders who had no sentence imposed, those with sealedsentences, and those who were deported.

28.533.8205632889Unknown or indeterminable offenses

4.011.69242,9474,844921,49810,375Misdemeanors h

30.054.44614410111,5312,019Other12.018.26935916360752Tax law violationh24.026.43837769276,8537,569Immigration60.0101.3295208572,8573,160Weapons26.048.1464351,25511111,60113,500Other15.027.8484658265001,187Regulator y24.047.3512811,83711712,10114,687Public-order offenses

60.084.3385140121,2551,450Possession and other57.078.33873395223417,77919,417Trafficking57.078.7425381,09224619,03420,867Drug offenses

19.040.4469795191,2352,110Other h15.022.44661183,2491225,7389,752Fraudu lenth15.025.65121274,0441416,87311,862Property offenses

57.084.4296235372,7713,078Violent offensesh

35.060.61,4782527,20854140,87950,494Felonies

33.0 mo58.9 mo2,4043,19912,10863642,40560,958All offenses g

MedianMeanOthereFine onlyTotalP b i d

Mixed

c

Imprison-mentbMost serious offense of convictiona

Months of imprison-ment imposedf

NumberOffenders convicted and sentenced

Table 5. Sanctions imposed on offenders convicted and sentenced in U.S. district courts, by offense,October 1, 1997 - September 30, 1998


1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 19980%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%Percent of offenders

Public-order

Property

Drug

Violent

Public-order

Property

DrugViolent

All offenses

All offenses

Defendants convicted in U.S. district court: Percentage sentenced to prison, bycategory of offense, 1982-1998

Note: Data for 1982 through 1993 are based on a 12-month calendar year reporting period ending December 31. Beginning in 1994, data are reported on the Federal fiscal year running from October 1 through September 30.

Figure 3

cIn this table, "Violent offenses" may include non-negligent manslaughterand some non-violent sex offenses; "Fraudulent property" excludes taxfraud; "Other non-fraudulent property" excludes fraudulent property and in-cludes destruction of property and trespass; and "Tax law violation" in-cludes tax fraud.

aBased on the disposition offense with the most severe sentence.bIncludes offenders for whom offense category could not be determined. SeeMethodology for a listing of detailed offense categories within each major offensecategory.


1229755110474104578Other764102010121122Tax law violationc

3896820866528693Immigration14523149180866116982Weapons331,2732825182,1062692,375Other185313515226178Regulator y

341,3583135532,2582952,553Public-order offenses

1022,3085671,2164,1936524,845Drug offenses

82476310542385508Otherc396231703591,1912481,439Fraudulent c478702334641,6143331,947Property offenses

6347101177631111742Violent offenses c

1964,9961,2582,4938,9431,59210,535All offenses b

OtherTotalPreguidelineTotalSentence andconviction

Convictiononly

SentenceonlyMost serious offense of convictiona

Guidelines-based appealsNumber of criminal appeals filed

Table 6. Criminal appeals filed, by type of criminal case and offense, October 1, 1997 - September 30, 1998


dIncludes 264 total offenders, 175 offenders under probation, 3 underparole, and 86 under supervised release whose felony offense cate-gory could not be determined. eIn this table, "Violent offenses" may include non-negligent manslaugh-ter and some non-violent sex offenses; "Fraudulent property" excludestax fraud; "Other non-fraudulent property" excludes fraudulent propertyand includes destruction of property and trespass; "Tax law violation"includes tax fraud; and "Misdemeanors" include misdemeanors, pettyoffenses, and unknown offense levels.

aIncludes offenders under active supervision at the close of the fiscal year.This population includes offenders under the three major forms of supervi-sion: probation, supervised release, and parole. Included under parole aretwo less common types of old law release: mandatory release and specialparole. Excluded from the number of offenders under active supervision re-ported in the table are offenders released to military parole and offendersunder community supervision prior to sentencing (such as during pretrial re-lease or pretrial investigation).bBased on the offense with the longest sentence imposed.cIncludes offenders for whom offense category could not be determined.See Methodology for a listing of detailed offense categories within each ma-jor offense category.

4.95370.11395.010,43510,985Misdemeanors e

38.22,0465.831125.11,3445,356Other34.76462.44562.81,1681,859Tax law violatione49.06230.81050.26391,272Immigration80.33,2434.618715.16084,038Weapons60.36,5585.155334.63,75910,870Other38.58451.73859.81,3132,196Regulator y56.77,4034.559138.85,07213,066Public-order offenses

82.53,2896.626310.94343,986Possession and other81.125,4778.92,78610.03,15331,416Trafficking81.328,7668.63,04910.13,58735,402Drug offenses

46.82,2644.923748.32,3404,841Othere

55.312,5351.738543.09,75822,678Fraudulent e

53.814,7992.362244.012,09827,519Property offenses

57.93,23127.81,54914.37975,577Violent offenses e

66.354,2857.15,81426.621,72981,828Felonies d

59.1%54,8226.3%5,82734.7%32,16492,813All offenses c

PercentNumberPercentNumberPercentNumberNumberSupervised releaseParoleProbationTotal

Most serious offense of convictionb

Post-incarceration supervisionOffenders under active supervisiona

Table 7. Offenders under Federal supervision, by offense, October 1, 1997 - September 30, 1998


1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 19980

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

90,000

100,000

Probation

Parole

Probation

Parole

Number of defendants

Supervisedrelease

All types

Supervised release

Number of offenders under Federal supervision, by type of supervision,1987-1998

Note: Data for 1987 through 1994 are based on a count of the supervised population as of June 30. Beginning in1995, data are based on a count as of September 30.

Figure 4

fIncludes prisoners for whom an offense category could not be de-termined. See Methodology for a listing of detailed offense catego-ries within each major offense category.gIn this table, "Violent offenses" may include non-negligent man-slaughter and some non-violent sex offenses; "Fraudulent property"excludes tax fraud; "Other non-fraudulent property" excludesfraudulent property and includes destruction of property and tres-pass; and "Tax law violation" includes tax fraud.

aBased on the offense having the longest sentence.bOffenders committed from U.S. district courts.cIncludes other commitments, such as offenders committed from other courts and violatorsof conditions of supervised release.dIncludes prisoners released for the first time from a U.S. district court commitment.eIncludes prisoners released from commitments other than a first release from a U.S. districtcourt commitment.

4001,8262774285026031,426Unknown or indeterminable offenses

3394,6531,2251,9931,2482,3094,314Other-1376121386119387377Tax law violationg

1,9707,4306747,1188268,9365,460Immigration6808,7337841,7779122,3298,053Weapons

2,98821,1922,80411,2743,10513,96118,204Other651,058233670251717993Regulatory

3,05322,2503,03711,9443,35614,67819,197Public-order offenses

31444484194534175413Possession and other4,81662,5044,11213,7854,58418,12957,688Trafficking4,84762,9484,59613,9795,11818,30458,101Drug offenses

1802,1511,4191,1961,5361,2591,971Other g3756,4612,1845,0952,2955,3596,086Fraudulent g5558,6123,6036,2913,8316,6188,057Property offenses

81512,2762,5281,8622,7952,41011,461Violent offenses g

9,670107,91214,04134,50415,60242,61398,242All offenses f

Net changeAll othereDistrict courtdAll othercDistrict courtbPopulation atend of year

Prisoners releasedPrisoners admittedPopulation atstart of yearMost serious offensea

Table 8. Federal prison admissions and releases, by offense, October 1, 1997 - September 30, 1998


1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 19980

10

20

30

40

50Number of months

Expected time to be servedfor offenders committedinto prison

Average time served by offenders released from prison

U.S. district court commitments and first releases from Federal prison, 1985-1998

Figure 5

The Federal justice database

Source of dataThe source of data for all tables inFederal Criminal Case Processing isthe Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)Federal justice database. The data-base is presently constructed fromsource files provided by the ExecutiveOffice for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA),the Administrative Office of the U.S.Courts (AOUSC), and the Federal Bu-reau of Prisons (BOP). AOUSC alsomaintains the data collected by theU.S. Court of Appeals and the FederalProbation and Supervision Informa-tion System (FPSIS). Federal lawprohibits the use of these files for anypurpose other than research or statis-tics. A description of the sourceagency data files is provided in tableM.2 at the end of this section.

Data universeThe universe of the BJS Federal jus-tice database includes criminal sus-pects investigated for violations ofFederal criminal law, defendants incases filed in U.S. district courts, andoffenders entering Federal correctionsand correctional supervision.

The universe of criminal suspects islimited to those whose matters wereinvestigated by U.S. attorneys and inwhich the investigation took at leastone hour of a U.S. attorney’s time.

The universe of defendants in Federalcriminal courts is limited to those de-fendants whose cases were filed in aU.S. district court, whether before aU.S. district court judge or a U.S.magistrate. This includes all felonydefendants, Class A misdemeanantdefendants, and those defendantscharged with petty offenses and han-dled by a U.S. district court judge.

The universe of offenders includes allsentenced offenders entering Federalprison regardless of the source oftheir commitment (e.g., U.S. districtcourt, State court, or military court, orreturn from a violation of conditions ofsupervision) or length of sentence.This may include some offenders whowere convicted of immigration

offenses who were committed forpetty offenses.

The universe of supervised offendersincludes persons entering and exitingterms of Federal supervision, and per-sons under Federal supervision dur-ing the fiscal year. Supervision typesinclude probation, parole, and super-vised release. Included amongst pa-role supervisees are those under twoless common types of "old law" super-vision (sentenced prior to the imple-mentation of the Sentencing ReformAct of 1984): mandatory release andspecial release.

The universe of suspects, defendants,and offenders varies from table to ta-ble in this report, depending on thedefinition of the statistic reported andthe source of the data.

Reporting periodWherever possible, matters or caseshave been selected according tosome event which occurred during fis-cal year 1998 (October 1, 1997,through September 30, 1998). Somedata files provided by source agenciesare organized according to a calendaryear time frame; these have beencombined and divided into fiscal yearsfor purposes of this report. Fileswhich are organized by their sourceagencies according to fiscal yearnonetheless include some pertinentrecords in later years' files. For ex-ample, tabulations of suspects in mat-ters concluded during fiscal year 1998have been assembled from sourcefiles containing records of 1998 mat-ters concluded which were enteredinto the data system during fiscalyears 1997 or 1998.

In the figures showing trends in Fed-eral criminal case processing, infor-mation is presented for a period be-tween 1982 and 1998. Data from theEOUSA are estimated from 1982 through 1993, as data prior to 1993 in-cluded appeals information not in-cluded in the subsequent years. Be-cause of changes in the reporting andcollection of data over time, data col-lected prior to 1994 from AOUSC andEOUSA were reported on a calendar-year basis; data collected from

1994-1998 are on a fiscal-year basis.The figures are marked and noted ac-cording to the period of measurement.In figure 4, data collected from FPSISreflect the supervised population as ofJune 30 for the period of 1987-1994,and the population as of September30 for the period of 1995-1998. In fig-ure 5, data collected from BOP, pre-sented from 1985-1998, are reportedon a fiscal-year basis.

Table construction andinterpretation

Universe in each tableThe universe in tables 1 and 2, andfigure 1 is suspects in criminal mat-ters investigated by U.S. attorneys. Aperson appearing in multiple matterswill be counted separately for eachmatter. Matters include criminal pro-ceedings handled exclusively by U.S.attorneys, or in which U.S. attorneysprovided assistance and spent atleast one hour of time.

The universe in tables 3, 4, and 5, aswell as figures 2 and 3 is defendantsadjudicated and sentenced in U.S.district court. Included are defendantscharged with felonies, Class A and Bmisdemeanors, and petty offenses ifthe petty offenses are handled by U.S.district court judges. Defendants whoappear in more than one case arecounted separately for each distinctcase in which they appear. Defen-dants may have been charged under"old law" (pre-Sentencing Reform Act)or "new law" (post-Sentencing ReformAct) standards.

The universe in table 6 is criminal ap-peals filed in the U.S. Court of Ap-peals. Appeals filed include bothPreguidelines- and Guidelines-basedappeals. The Sentencing Reform Actallowed for the appeal of sentencesimposed, where previously only theconviction could be appealed.

The universe in table 7 and figure 4 isoffenders entering, exiting, or underactive supervision. Active supervisionincludes supervisees who report regu-larly to their supervising officers. Ex-cluded are offenders released to mili-tary parole and offenders who are

Methodology 15

Methodology

under community release prior tosentencing.

The universe in table 8 and figure 5 issentenced Federal offenders commit-ted into Federal prison facilities — re-gardless of the court from which theywere committed and regardless of thelength of sentence. This includes pri-marily offenders committed from U.S.district courts by U.S. district courtjudges, but also includes those com-mitted by U.S. magistrates, militarycourts, and some State courts. In ad-dition, it includes offenders who vio-lated conditions of supervised releaseand who were returned to prison fortheir violations rather than from acourt commitment.

Unit of analysisThe unit of analysis in tables 1through 6 is a combination of a per-son (or corporation) and a matter orcase. For example, if a single personis involved in three different criminalcases during the time period specifiedin the table, he or she is counted threetimes in the tabulation. Similarly, if asingle criminal case involves a corpo-rate defendant and four individual de-fendants, it counts five times in thetabulation.

In tables 7 and 8, the unit of analysisfor incarceration, probation, parole, orother supervised release is a personentering custody or supervision, or aperson leaving custody or supervision.For example, a person convicted intwo concurrent cases and committedonce to the custody of the BOP in theindicated time period is counted asone admission to a term of incarcera-tion. A person who leaves a BOP fa-cility, reenters, and leaves again in thesame fiscal-year period would becounted as one admission and two re-leases. A person who terminates pro-bation twice in the indicated time pe-riod, such as with a violation andagain after reinstatement, is countedas two terminations of probation.

InterpretationThe data presented in this report is astatistical presentation of offendersprocessed in the Federal criminal

justice system. The tables presenteddescribe the number of offendersprocessed, and the outcome of thatprocessing, at each stage of the Fed-eral criminal justice system. Becausemany tables represent different cross-sections of offenders, comparisonsacross tables are not necessarilyvalid.

Offense classifications

ProcedureThe offense classification procedureused in this report is based on theclassification system followed by theAOUSC. Specific offenses in theAOUSC classification are combined toform the BJS categories shown in thisreport’s tables.*

For data from EOUSA (tables 1 and 2,figure 1), which include U.S. Code ci-tations but do not include the AOUSCoffense classifications, U.S. Code ti-tles and sections are translated intothe AOUSC classification system andthen aggregated into the offense cate-gories used in the tables. Offensecategories for prisoners in table 8 arebased on combinations of offensedesignations used by BOP. They aresimilar to the categories in other ta-bles, but may not be directlycomparable.

Felony/misdemeanor distinctionsFelony and misdemeanor distinctionsare provided where possible. Felonyoffenses are those with a maximumpenalty of more than 1 year in prison.Misdemeanor offenses are those witha maximum penalty of 1 year or less.Felonies and misdemeanors are fur-ther classified using the maximumterm of imprisonment authorized.Section 3559, U.S. Code, Title 18classifies offenses according to thefollowing schedule:

FeloniesClass A felony — life imprisonment,or if the maximum penalty is death.

Class B felony — 25 years or more.

Class C felony — less than 25 yearsbut more than 10 years.

Class D felony — less than 10 yearsbut more than 5 years.

Class E felony — less than 5 yearsbut more than 1 year.

MisdemeanorsClass A misdemeanor — 1 year orless but more than 1 months.

Class B misdemeanor — 6 monthsor less but more than 30 days.

Class C misdemeanor — 30 days orless but more than 5 days.

Infraction — 5 days or less, or if noimprisonment is authorized.

In this report, felony and misde-meanor distinctions are providedwhere the data permit these distinc-tions. Tables 1 and 2 do not use thisdistinction because many suspectscannot be so classified at the investi-gation stage in the criminal justiceprocess. Table 6 does not use thisdistinction because the Court of Ap-peals data do not allow for such abreakout. Table 8 does not use thisdistinction because BOP offense cate-gories do not allow for such a break-out. None of the figures showingtrend data report this distribution.

Classification level

Offenses in the tables in this reportare classified, at the most generallevel, into felony and misdemeanorcategories. Felonies are then brokenout by four main level offense classifi-cations: violent, property, drug, andpublic-order offenses. Property andpublic-order offenses are broken outinto two sublevels. The main-leveland sub-group categories are com-posed of individual offense types.Where the data source allows, drugoffenses are broken out into the indi-vidual offense level. “Other public-order offenses” include a limited


*These categories correspond to the BJScrime definitions and, to the extent possi-ble, are organized and presented consis-tent with BJS publications on State crimi-nal justice systems.

breakout at the individual offense typelevel. Table M.1 includes a list of spe-cific offenses under each offensecategory.

Offense categoriesFor offenses referred to in table M.1,the following conditions apply:

"Murder " includes nonnegligentmanslaughter.

"Other sex offenses " may includesome nonviolent offenses.

"Fraud " excludes tax fraud.

"Larceny " excludes transportation ofstolen property.

"Other property felonies " excludesfraudulent property offenses, and in-cludes destruction of property andtrespass.

"Tax law violations " includes taxfraud.

"Obscene material " denotes the mailor transport thereof.

"All other felonies " includes felonieswith unclassifiable offense type.

"Misdemeanors " includes misde-meanors, petty offenses, and un-known offense levels.

"Drug possession " also includesother drug misdemeanors.

Most serious offense selectionWhere more than one offense ischarged or adjudicated, the most seri-ous offense (the one that may or didresult in the most severe sentence) isused to classify offenses. The of-fense description may change as thecriminal justice process proceeds.Tables indicate whether investigated,charged, or adjudicated offenses areused.

In tables 1 and 2, the most serious of-fense is based on the criminal leadcharge as determined by the assis-tant U.S. attorney responsible for thecriminal proceeding.

In tables 3 and 4, the most serious of-fense charged is the one that has themost severe potential sentence.

For table 5, conviction offenses arebased on the disposition offenseshaving the most severe penalty.

In table 6, an offense is classified intothe category that represents the un-derlying offense of conviction, basedon the disposition offense with themost severe sentence.

In table 7, the most serious offense ofconviction is either the one having thelongest sentence imposed or, if equalsentences were imposed or there wasno imprisonment, it was the offensecarrying the highest severity code asdetermined by AOUSC’s offense se-verity code ranking.

In table 8, prisoners are classified ac-cording to the offense which bears thelongest single incarceration sentence.

Estimations

Several methods were used to esti-mate the trend data in this report.

Estimated number of suspectsin criminal mattersBecause of a change in the reportingprotocol for information received fromthe EOUSA effective with fiscal year1994 data, it was necessary to esti-mate certain statistics for years 1982-1993. Prior to 1994, reports of thenumber of suspects in criminal mat-ters included appellants in Federalcriminal appeals. Because full-sourceagency data prior to 1994 could notbe accessed, an estimation procedurewas used to estimate the number ofappellants within main offense cate-gories and then subtract them fromthe number of suspects in criminalmatters which included appellants.The procedure is described in the fol-lowing paragraphs.

The objective was to estimate thenumber of appellants included in re-ports of the number of suspects incriminal matters. This is denoted be-low as AEO.

Using existing data on appellants de-rived from alternative sources, suchas AOUSC reports, an estimator wasdeveloped based on the assumption

Methodology 17

Larceny

Drug possession

Immigration

Traffic offense

Other misdemeanors

Fraudulent property

Weapons

Immigration offenses

Tax law violations

Bribery

Perjury, contempt,and intimidation

National defense

Racketeering/extortion

Gambling

Agriculture

Antitrust

Food and drug

Transportation

Civil rights

Communications

Custom laws

Postal laws

Other regulatoryoffenses

Trafficking

Possession

Other drugoffenses

Burglary

Larceny

Motor vehicle theft

Arson andexplosives

Transportation ofstolen property

Other propertyoffenses

Embezzlement

Fraud

Forgery

Counterfeiting

Murder

Negligentmanslaughter

Assault

Robbery

Rape

Other sex offenses

Kidnaping

Threats against thePresident

MisdemeanorsOtherRegulatoryDrug offensesOtherFraudulentViolent offensesPublic-order offensesProperty offenses

Felonies

Table M.1. Breakout of main category offenses

that the ratio of appellants to defen-dants plus appellants in the EOUSAdata was equal to the observed ratioof appellants to appellants plus defen-dants in the AOUSC data, or:

AAO

(AAO+DAO)=

AEO

(AEO+DEO)

where:AAO = number of AO appellantsDAO = number of AO defendantsAEO = number of EO appellantsDEO = number of EO defendants

Solving for AEO yields:

=AEO

AAO

(AAO+DAO)x (AEO+DEO)

Solving for AEO yields the estimatorabove. This estimator was used toproduce estimates each year between1982 and 1993 using data from theseyears. The estimated number of ap-pellants in suspects in criminal mat-ters was subtracted from the reportednumber to derive the estimated num-ber of suspects in criminal matters.These were used in figure 1. Theseestimates were done at the level of of-fense category (violent, property,drugs, and public order).

Estimated expected time to beserved for offenders enteringprisonThe methodology for estimating ex-pected time to be served to first re-lease for prisoners entering the BOPsystem from a district court commit-ment involves grouping prisoners bytheir fiscal year of entry. Once thisgrouping has occurred, each prisoneris classified into one of the followingcategories:

a) a prisoner who has been releasedby the end of the observation win-dow (1985-1998);

b) a prisoner still incarcerated at theend of the observation window whowas sentenced prior to the passageof the Sentencing Reform Act of1984 (an "old law" prisoner);

c) a prisoner still incarcerated at theend of the observation window who

was sentenced after to the passageof the Sentencing Reform Act (a"new law" prisoner).

For prisoners in category (a) actualtime served is recorded. For thoseprisoners in category (b) a lowerbound estimate of time to be served isused, based on actual data from simi-lar prisoners in previous enteringyears. For prisoners in category (c) alower bound of 85% of the sentenceimposed, the minimum sentence to beserved under the Sentencing ReformAct, is recorded. A weighted averageof all three estimation components istaken, using the percentage distribu-tion of prisoner types (a), (b), and (c)in an entering cohort.

Statistics appearing in FederalCriminal Case Processing, 1998

The statistics appearing in this reportare as follows:

Table 1. Suspects in mattersinvestigated by U.S. attorneysThis is the number of suspects incriminal matters whom U.S. attorneysspent at least one hour investigating.It excludes suspects whose matterswere immediately declined or whosematters were received via transferfrom another district. An immediatedeclination is one in which a U.S. at-torney declines to prosecute a crimi-nal matter without investigating thematter. Suspects may include per-sons, corporations, or other legal enti-ties. Matters are limited to criminalmatters investigated by U.S. attorneysor matters in which U.S. attorneys as-sisted in the investigation. Suspectsappearing in more than one matterare counted separately for eachmatter.

Table 2. Suspects in mattersconcluded by U.S. attorneysThis is the number of suspects incriminal matters concluded by U.S. at-torneys, regardless of the year inwhich the criminal matter wasopened. A matter is defined as con-cluded when a U.S. attorney files acase in a U.S. district court before aU.S. district court judge, when a U.S.

attorney declines to prosecute thematter, or when a misdemeanor caseis concluded before a U.S. magistrate.The table excludes suspects whosematter was declined immediately orwhose matter was concluded bytransfer. Suspects in matters con-cluded may include persons, corpora-tions, or other legal entities and arelimited to the suspects investigated orprosecuted by U.S. attorneys, or inwhich U.S. attorneys assisted in theinvestigation or prosecution. Suspectsappearing in more than one matterare counted separately for eachmatter.

Table 3. Defendants in casescommencedThis is the number of defendants incases proceeded in U.S. district court,either before a U.S. district courtjudge or a U.S. magistrate. Proceed-ings are initiated on or after the date acase is filed in a U.S. district court.Included in the count are defendantsin cases handled by U.S. district courtjudges plus Class A misdemeanors,whether handled by a U.S. districtcourt judge or a U.S. magistrate. Alsoincluded are defendants in cases in-volving petty offenses (Class B or Cmisdemeanors) if they were handledby U.S. district court judges. Thesecases included all cases commencedregardless of the source of prosecu-tion — U.S. attorneys or Departmentof Justice. Excluded from this countare defendants whose cases wereopened by transfer from another dis-trict (e.g., a Rule 20 or Rule 40 trans-fer). Defendants appearing in morethan one case are counted separatelyin each case.

Table 4. Defendants in casesterminatedThis is the number of defendantswhose cases were terminated in U.S.district court. A case is terminated if adefendant is found not guilty, thecharges are dismissed, or when a de-fendants is sentenced, if he or shewas convicted. Included in the countare defendants in cases handled byU.S. district court judges plus Class Amisdemeanors, whether handled by a


U.S. district court judge or a U.S.magistrate. Also included are defen-dants in cases involving petty of-fenses (Class B or C misdemeanors)if they were handled by U.S. districtcourt judges. These cases includedall cases commenced regardless ofthe source of prosecution — U.S. at-torneys or Department of Justice. Ex-cluded from this count are defendantswhose cases were opened by transferfrom another district (e.g., a Rule 20or Rule 40 transfer). Defendants ap-pearing in more than one case arecounted separately in each case.

Defendants are classified as con-victed if they plead guilt, nolo conten-dere, or if they are found guilty at trial.Defendants convicted by trial includedthose found guilty by reason of insan-ity. Defendants not convicted in-cludes defendants whose cases weredismissed and those who were acquit-ted or found not guilty at trial.

Table 5. Defendants sentencedThis is the number of defendants sen-tenced in U.S. district court. Includedare defendants sentenced in caseshandled by U.S. district court judgesplus Class A misdemeanors, whetherhandled by a U.S. district court judgeor a U.S. magistrate. Also includedare defendants sentenced for petty of-fenses (Class B or C misdemeanors)if they were handled by U.S. districtcourt judges. These cases includedall cases commenced regardless ofthe source of prosecution — U.S. at-torneys or Department of Justice. Ex-cluded from this count are defendantswhose cases were opened by transferfrom another district (e.g., a Rule 20or Rule 40 transfer). Defendants ap-pearing in more than one case arecounted separately in each case.

The sanctions shown in table 5 in-clude imprisonment only, mixed sen-tences of prison plus supervision, pro-bation, and fine only. Imprisonment islimited to defendants receiving termsof imprisonment but no probation, in-cluding life and death sentences, butexcluding suspended sentences orsentences to fewer than 4 days. Newlaw offenders receiving

prison-community split sentences(prison and conditions of alternativecommunity confinement) are also in-cluded. Mixed sentences include de-fendants given sentences of bothprison and probation (applies to of-fenders sentenced under "old law"standards only). Probation includesdefendants given sentences of proba-tion. Defendants who received proba-tion plus conditions of confinementsuch as intermittent confinement,home detention, or community con-finement are classified under proba-tion. Fine only includes those defen-dants who received only a fine. Othersentences include sealed sentences,prison sentences of four days or less,deportations, and cases in which thedefendant was convicted but not givena sentence. The statistics on meanand median prison sentences arebased on the number given prison ex-clusive of life and death sentences.For offenders given prison-communitysplit sentences, only the length of theprison sentence is included in thecalculation.

Table 6. Criminal appeals filedThis table reports the number of crimi-nal appeals filed in the U.S. Court ofAppeals. Prior to implementation ofthe Sentencing Reform Act of 1984,only criminal convictions could be ap-pealed. However, the Sentencing Re-form Act provided for the appellate re-view of sentences imposed given thatthe sentence was (1) imposed in vio-lation of the law; (2) imposed as theresult of an incorrect sentencingguideline application; (3) outside therecommended guideline sentencingrange; or (4) imposed for an offensefor which no sentencing guideline ex-ists and is plainly unreasonable. Boththe defendant and the Governmenthave the right to appeal an imposedsentence (18 U.S.C. § 3742).

Table 7. Offenders underFederal supervisionThis table reports the number of of-fenders under active supervision atthe close of the fiscal year. It includesoffenders under three forms of super-vision: probation, supervised release,

and parole. Included in parole super-visees are those under two less com-mon types of "old law" (sentencedprior to the implementation of theSentencing Reform Act of 1984),mandatory release and special re-lease. The unit of analysis is a uniqueperson released on supervision.

Table 8. PrisonersThis table reports the number of sen-tenced Federal offenders committedinto the custody of the BOP, releasedfrom this custody, or in Federalprison. "Into the custody of" includesprisoners in BOP facilities plus con-tract facilities. Contract facilities gen-erally house offenders prior to releasefrom prison. Sentenced offenders in-clude felony, misdemeanor, and pettyoffenders sentenced to prison regard-less of the judge — U.S. district courtjudge or U.S. magistrate — who sen-tenced the offender. The unit ofanalysis for the prisoner stocks is aunique person in Federal prison. Theunit of count for prisoner movementsis based on admissions and releasesinto and from Federal prison. Aunique person may appear more thanonce in a column showing admissionsand releases if that person was admit-ted or released from Federal prisonmore than once during the reportingperiod.

Included in the counts of district courtcommitments are offenders sen-tenced from district courts. This in-cludes some offenders sentenced byU.S. magistrates. Other admissionsinclude offenders committed fromother courts and offenders returningto prison for violations of conditions ofsupervised release. A first release isdefined as a release from a districtcourt commitment. Other releases in-clude releases of offenders who wereserving terms for violating conditionsof supervised release — offenderswho were committed on other than adistrict court commitment.

Methodology 19

Table 8

Appendix table A.15

The data extracts contain information on all offenders released fromprison over a specific period of time plus information about the offend-ers in prison when the data extracts are made. The information coversthe time that offenders enter prison until their release from the jurisdic-tion of the Bureau of Prisons.

Bureau of Prisons (BOP): Extract fromBOP’s online Sentry System

Table 7

Appendix table A.14

Contains information about supervisions provided by probation officersfor persons placed on probation or supervised release from prison.The files contain records of individuals entering, or currently on supervi-sion, as well as records of offenders terminating supervision.

AOUSC — Federal Probation and Su-pervision Information System (FPSIS)

Table 6

Appendix table A.11

Contains information on criminal appeals filed and terminated in U.S Courts of Appeals. Records of appeals filed, pending, or terminatedinclude information on the nature of the criminal appeal, the underlyingoffense, and the disposition of the appeal.

AOUSC: Court of Appeals

Tables 3, 4, 5

Appendix tables A.6, A.7,A.8, A.9, A.10, A.12, A.13

Contains information about the criminal proceedings against defen-dants whose cases were filed in U.S. district courts. Includes informa-tion on felony defendants, Class A misdemeanants — whether handledby U.S. district court judges or U.S. magistrates — and other misde-meanants provided they were handled by U.S. district court judges.The information in the data files cover criminal proceedings from casefiling through disposition and sentencing. Data are available on crimi-nal defendants in cases filed, pending, and terminated.

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts(AOUSC) — Criminal Termination Files

Tables 1, 2

Appendix tables A.1, A.2,A.3, A.4, A.5

Contains information on the investigation and prosecution of suspectsin criminal matters received and concluded, criminal cases filed andterminated, and criminal appeals filed and handled by U.S. attorneys.The central system files contain defendant-level records about theprocessing of matters and cases; the central charge files contain therecords of the charges filed and disposed in criminal cases. Data areavailable on matters and cases filed, pending, and terminated.

Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys(EOUSA) — Central System and Cen-tral Charge Files

TablesDescription of data files contentsData source agency — data files

Table M.2. Source agencies for data tables in Federal Criminal Case Processing


Appendix

Appendix 21

TablesA.1. Suspects in criminal matters investigated

by U.S. attorneys, by offense, 1994-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

A.2. Suspects in criminal matters concludedby U.S. attorneys, by offense, 1994-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

A.3. Suspects in criminal matters concludedby U.S. attorneys: Number prosecutedbefore U.S. district court judge, by offense,1994-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

A.4. Suspects in criminal matters concludedby U.S. magistrates, by offense, 1994-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . 24

A.5. Suspects in criminal matters concludedby U.S. attorneys: Number declinedprosecution, by offense, 1994-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

A.6. Defendants in cases proceeded againstin U.S. district courts, by offense,1994-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

A.7. Defendants in cases terminating inU.S. district courts, by offense, 1994-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

A.8. Defendants in cases terminating inU.S. district courts: Percent convicted,by offense, 1994-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

A.9. Offenders convicted and sentenced inU.S. district courts, by offense, 1994-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

A.10. Offenders convicted and sentenced inU.S. district courts: Number sentencedto prison, by offense, 1994-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

A.11. Criminal appeals filed, by offense, 1994-1998 . . . . . . . . . 28

A.12. Offenders convicted and sentenced inU.S. district courts: Number sentencedto probation only, by offense, 1994-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

A.13. Offenders convicted and sentenced inU.S. district courts: Mean number of monthsof imprisonment imposed, by offense,1994-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

A.14. Offenders under Federal supervision,by offense, 1994-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

A.15. Population at the end of the year inFederal prisons, by offense, 1994-1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

bIn this table, “Violent offenses” may include non-negligent manslaughter andsome non-violent sex offenses; “Fraudulent property” excludes tax fraud;“Other non-fraudulent property” excludes fraudulent property and includes de-struction of property and trespass; and “Tax law violation” includes tax fraud.

Note: Most serious offense investigated is based on the decision ofthe assistant U.S. attorney responsible for the matter.aIncludes suspects whose offense category could not be determined.See Methodology for a listing of detailed offense categories withineach major offense category.

1,4201,6441,5151,3871,126Unknown or indeterminable offenses

13,52916,03112,33612,31712,611Other1,1741,4031,4281,3481,473Tax law violationb

14,1149,3667,1227,2565,526Immigration4,9074,8704,4625,3765,996Weapons

33,72431,67025,34826,29725,606Other6,5415,4235,1545,3715,059Regulator y

40,26537,09330,50231,66830,665Public-order offenses

36,35534,02730,22731,68629,311Drug offenses

3,7974,0623,7173,9234,088Otherb

26,32825,85425,24527,83628,491Fraudulent b30,12529,91628,96231,75932,579Property offenses

7,5277,3546,5705,7205,570Violent offenses b

115,692110,03497,776102,22099,251All offenses a

19981997199619951994Most serious offense investigated

Table A.1. Suspects in criminal matters investigated by U.S. attorneys, by offense, 1994-1998


Note: Most serious offense investigated is based on the decision ofthe assistant U.S. attorney responsible for the matter.aIncludes suspects whose offense category could not be determined.See Methodology for a listing of detailed offense categories withineach major offense category.

1,0551,3021,039900588Unknown or indeterminable offenses

12,20811,53111,71411,87611,845Other1,0241,3491,4031,3291,478Tax law violationb




33,99132,07230,70831,26127,697Drug offenses

3,7493,4763,7444,0273,714Otherb23,71225,15727,29429,86128,038Fraudulent b27,46128,63331,03833,88831,752Property offenses

6,8656,5706,1075,3995,339Violent offensesb

106,02299,45998,454102,30994,980All offenses a


Table A.2. Suspects in criminal matters concluded by U.S. attorneys, by offense, 1994-1998

Appendix 23


Note: Most serious offense investigated is based on the decision ofthe assistant U.S. attorney responsible for the matter. Number of sus-pects includes suspects whose cases were filed in U.S. district courtbefore a district court judge.aIncludes suspects whose offense category could not be determined.See Methodology for a listing of detailed offense categories withineach major offense category.


3,6984,0804,9514,3564,361Other661897862881927Tax law violationb




26,26624,40021,54821,44519,427Drug offenses



64,99360,38356,93855,70350,802All offenses a


Table A.3. Suspects in criminal matters concluded by U.S. attorneys: Number prosecuted before U.S.district court judge, by offense, 1994-1998


Note: Most serious offense investigated is based on the decision ofthe assistant U.S. attorney responsible for the matter. Number of sus-pects includes defendants in misdemeanor cases which were termi-nated in U.S. district court before a U.S. magistrate.aIncludes suspects whose offense category could not be determined.See Methodology for a listing of detailed offense categories withineach major offense category.



2,3741,2297751,9892,217Immigration116153137190189Weapons

7,3095,2833,8535,4695,640Other386266275224198Regulator y


1,5611,9032,2622,4561,821Drug offenses

520284260300245Otherb1,6511,6351,5111,7431,536Fraudulent b2,1711,9191,7712,0431,781Property offenses

305352295295264Violent offenses b

12,24310,0078,68410,7109,754All offenses a


Table A.4. Suspects in criminal matters concluded by U.S. magistrates, by offense, 1994-1998



Note: Most serious offense investigated is based on the decision ofthe assistant U.S. attorney responsible for the matter. Number of sus-pects includes suspects whose matters were declined for prosecutionby U.S. attorneys upon review.aIncludes suspects whose offense category could not be determined.See Methodology for a listing of detailed offense categories withineach major offense category.


3,7153,5873,8544,2594,299Other339415509419502Tax law violationb370302324366293Immigration

1,2791,3011,6011,7841,982Weapons5,7035,6056,2886,8287,076Other3,4702,9843,1723,5313,495Regulator y9,1738,5899,46010,35910,571Public-order offenses

6,1645,7696,8987,3606,449Drug offenses

1,2841,3111,5511,6671,472Otherb9,65310,85912,44614,26013,819Fraudulent b

10,93712,17013,99715,92715,291Property offenses


28,78629,06932,83235,89634,424All offenses a


Table A.5. Suspects in criminal matters concluded by U.S. attorneys: Number declined prosecution, byoffense, 1994-1998

Appendix 25

bIn this table, “Violent offenses” may include non-negligent manslaugh-ter and some non-violent sex offenses; “Fraudulent property” excludestax fraud; “Other non-fraudulent property” excludes fraudulent propertyand includes destruction of property and trespass; “Tax law violation”includes tax fraud; and "Misdemeanors" include misdemeanors, pettyoffenses, and unknown offense levels.

Note: Most serious offense charged is based on the offense carrying themost severe statutory maximum penalty.aIncludes defendants whose offense category could not be determined.See Methodology for a listing of detailed offense categories within eachmajor offense category.


13,25412,26712,77413,03614,980Misdemeanorsb





1,7031,2901,155792223Possession and other26,31823,40320,52220,19120,052Trafficking28,02124,69321,67720,98320,275Drug offenses



64,76957,02252,65650,48347,341Felonies

78,17269,35165,48063,54762,327All offenses a

19981997199619951994Most serious offense charged

Table A.6. Defendants in cases proceeded against in U.S. district courts, by offense, 1994-1998


Note: Most serious offense charged is based on the offense carrying themost severe statutory maximum penalty.aIncludes defendants whose offense category could not be determined.See Methodology for a listing of detailed offense categories within eachmajor offense category.


13,50311,79512,11511,98914,111Misdemeanors b





1,565995819366163Possession and other21,86721,37919,48617,82320,056Trafficking23,43222,37420,30518,18920,219Drug offenses

2,3612,5732,5562,6092,989Other b10,85411,15210,2609,81710,193Fraudu lentb13,21513,72512,81612,42613,182Property offenses


56,16053,09749,28344,46247,292Felonies

69,76964,95661,43456,48061,404All offenses a


Table A.7. Defendants in cases terminating in U.S. district courts, by offense, 1994-1998



Note: Most serious offense charged is based on the offense carrying themost severe statutory maximum penalty.—Too few cases to obtain statistically reliable data.aIncludes defendants whose offense category could not be determined.See Methodology for a listing of detailed offense categories within eachmajor offense category.

84.082.880.686.2—Unknown or indeterminable offenses

76.874.875.675.270.4Misdemeanors b

87.383.583.582.877.5Other94.693.791.090.792.2Tax law violationb94.895.996.193.692.2Immigration86.687.687.584.885.2Weapons91.691.290.687.785.5Other87.785.782.579.881.3Regulator y91.390.889.986.884.9Public-order offenses

92.789.088.288.378.5Possession and other88.889.388.385.586.0Trafficking89.189.388.385.685.9Drug offenses

89.489.389.585.685.9Otherb89.889.889.688.087.7Fraudulent b89.889.789.587.587.3Property offenses

90.189.988.188.787.9Violent offenses b

89.989.889.086.686.2Felonies

87.4%87.1%86.4%84.2%82.6%All offenses a


Table A.8. Defendants in cases terminating in U.S. district courts: Percent convicted, by offense,1994-1998


Note: Most serious offense is based on the disposition offense with themost severe sentence.aIncludes offenders whose offense category could not be determined orwhose sentence was unknown. See Methodology for a listing of detailedoffense categories within each major offense category.


10,3759,63610,0549,81811,072Misdemeanors b





1,4501,058880456203Possession and other19,41718,05716,48514,32216,197Trafficking20,86719,11517,36514,77816,400Drug offenses

2,1102,0912,0702,0852,442Other b9,7529,9199,0558,4848,671Fraudu lentb

11,86212,01011,12510,56911,113Property offenses


50,49446,87842,99237,71339,624Felonies

60,95856,57053,07647,55650,701All offenses a

19981997199619951994Most serious offense of conviction

Table A.9. Offenders convicted and sentenced in U.S. district courts, by offense, 1994-1998

Appendix 27

aIncludes offenders whose offense category could not be deter-mined or whose sentence was unknown. See Methodology for alisting of detailed offense categories within each major offensecategory.bIn this table, “Violent offenses” may include non-negligent manslaugh-ter and some non-violent sex offenses; “Fraudulent property” excludestax fraud; “Other non-fraudulent property” excludes fraudulent propertyand includes destruction of property and trespass; “Tax law violation”includes tax fraud; and "Misdemeanors" include misdemeanors, pettyoffenses, and unknown offense levels.

Note: Most serious offense of conviction is based on the disposition of-fense with the most severe sentence. Number of offenders includes of-fenders given life and death sentences, and includes new law offendersgiven prison-community split sentences (prison and conditions of alter-native community confinement). Number of offenders also includes of-fenders given mixed sentences of prison plus probation, applicable onlyto offenders sentenced pursuant to laws applicable prior to the Sentenc-ing Reform Act of 1984.


1,4981,6792,0202,0391,948Misdemeanors b





1,255919736369132Possession and other17,77916,71815,24813,13314,841Trafficking19,03417,63715,98413,50214,973Drug offenses



40,87937,74734,34529,75931,070Felonies

42,40539,43136,37331,80533,022All offenses a


Table A.10. Offenders convicted and sentenced in U.S. district courts: Number sentenced to prison,by offense, 1994-1998

bIn this table, “Violent offenses” may include non-negligent manslaugh-ter and some non-violent sex offenses; “Fraudulent property” excludestax fraud; “Other non-fraudulent property” excludes fraudulent propertyand includes destruction of property and trespass; and “Tax law viola-tion” includes tax fraud.

Note: Appeals were classified into the offense category that repre-sents the underlying offense of conviction. Offenses represent thestatutory offense charged against a defendant in a criminal appeal.aIncludes offenders whose offense category could not bedetermined. See Methodology for a listing of detailed offense cate-gories within each major offense category.


578676649563603Other122150140103146Tax law violationb693417353277261Immigration9821,1351,1831,0341,141Weapons

2,3752,3782,3251,9772,151Other

178224196220288Regulator y2,5532,6022,5212,1972,439Public-order offenses

4,8454,7505,0994,4995,102Drug offenses

508453512444539Other b

1,4391,5191,5811,3231,410Fraudu lentb1,9471,9722,0931,7671,949Property offenses


10,53510,52110,88910,16210,674All offenses a

19981997199619951994Most serious underlying offense of conviction

Table A.11. Criminal appeals filed, by offense, 1994-1998



Note: Most serious offense of conviction is based on the disposition of-fense with the most severe sentence. Number of offenders includes of-fenders given probation plus conditions of confinement, such as homeconfinement or intermittent confinement. aIncludes offenders whose offense category could not be determined orwhose sentence was unknown. See Methodology for a listing of detailedoffense categories within each major offense category.


4,8444,6124,6314,5565,103Misdemeanors b

410442398511506Other359379338386388Tax law violationb769310376204217Immigration208182229221296Weapons



1401141236665Possession and other9529408889261,139Trafficking

1,0921,0541,0119921,204Drug offenses

795800797770850Other b3,2493,4753,2383,2173,477Fraudu lentb4,0444,2754,0353,9874,327Property offenses


7,2087,3877,1387,0307,677Felonies

12,10812,04611,78911,60212,781All offenses a


Table A.12. Offenders convicted and sentenced in U.S. district courts: Number sentenced toprobation only, by offense, 1994-1998


Note: Most serious offense of conviction is based on the disposition of-fense with the most severe sentence. Calculations for imprisonmentlength exclude offenders given life or death sentences. For new law of-fenders given prison-community split sentences, imprisonment length in-cludes prison sentences only.aIncludes offenders whose offense category could not be determined orwhose sentence was unknown. See Methodology for a listing of detailedoffense categories within each major offense category.

33.830.223.071.464.0Unknown or indeterminable offenses

11.610.011.19.812.3Misdemeanors b

54.451.551.043.042.0Other18.221.332.019.016.0Tax law violationb26.423.023.024.023.0Immigration

101.3102.1100.095.083.0Weapons48.148.952.755.654.0Other27.826.526.727.832.2Regulator y47.347.651.253.652.0Public-order offenses

84.377.777.066.046.0Possession and other78.381.385.088.084.0Trafficking78.781.184.887.183.9Drug offenses

40.435.237.047.546.2Otherb22.422.121.121.920.0Fraudulent b25.624.424.127.326.4Property offenses

84.486.192.798.592.3Violent offensesb

60.661.564.666.865.6Felonies

58.9 mo59.3 mo61.7 mo63.3 mo62.6 moAll offenses a


Table A.13. Offenders convicted and sentenced in U.S. district courts: Mean number of months ofimprisonment imposed, by offense, 1994-1998

Appendix 29

bIncludes offenders whose felony offense category could not be deter-mined. A felony offense category could not be determined for 70 of-fenders during 1994, 118 during 1995, 158 during 1996, and 264 dur-ing 1997.cIn this table, “Violent offenses” may include non-negligent manslaugh-ter and some non-violent sex offenses; “Fraudulent property” excludestax fraud; “Other non-fraudulent property” excludes fraudulent propertyand includes destruction of property and trespass; “Tax law violation”includes tax fraud; and "Misdemeanors" include misdemeanors, pettyoffenses, and unknown offense levels.

Note: Most serious offense of conviction is based on the offense withthe longest sentence imposed. Number of offenders includes offendersunder active supervision at the close of the fiscal year. This populationincludes offenders under the three major forms of supervision: probation, supervised release, and parole. Included under parole aretwo less common types of old law release: mandatory release and spe-cial parole. Excluded from the number of offenders under active supervi-sion reported in the table are offenders released to military parole and of-fenders under community supervision prior to sentencing (such as duringpretrial release or pretrial investigation).aIncludes offenders whose offense category could not be determined.See Methodology for a listing of detailed offense categories within eachmajor offense category.

10,98510,94711,33811,40213,092Misdemeanors c

5,3563,5523,4963,5233,425Other1,8591,8901,9782,1292,184Tax law violationc1,2721,4051,1809591,083Immigration4,0383,9083,8323,7313,924Weapons



3,9863,8013,3422,4781,397Possession and other31,41629,94228,51726,86526,841Trafficking35,40233,74331,85929,34328,238Drug offenses

4,8414,9645,1745,5235,916Other c22,67822,62122,03421,98922,609Fraudu lentc27,51927,58527,20827,51228,525Property offenses

5,5775,2705,0364,7534,873Violent offenses c

81,82879,80476,85174,26074,597Feloniesb

92,81390,75188,18985,66287,689All offenses a


Table A.14. Offenders under Federal supervision, 1994-1998

bIn this table, “Violent offenses” may include non-negligent manslaugh-ter and some non-violent sex offenses; “Fraudulent property” excludestax fraud; “Other non-fraudulent property” excludes fraudulent propertyand includes destruction of property and trespass; and “Tax law viola-tion” includes tax fraud.

Note: Most serious offense is based on the offense having the long-est sentence.aIncludes prisoners whose offense category could not bedetermined. See Methodology for a listing of detailed offense cate-gories within each major offense category.

1,8261,328947970940Unknown or indeterminable offenses



21,19218,18416,30814,76112,898Other1,0581,013919894878Regulator y


444409324381382Possession and other62,50458,20154,87052,40150,197Trafficking62,94858,61055,19452,78250,579Drug offenses



107,91298,94492,67288,65884,362All offenses a

19981997199619951994Most serious offense

Table A.15. Population at the end of the year in Federal prisons, by offense, 1994-1998


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