LibGuides: Criminal Justice: Data & Statistics

Data & Statistics

Datasets are the raw pieces of information that are collected through surveys and other research tools and analyzed through statistics like "55% of state prisoners were serving sentences for violent offenses at year-end 2016" (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2017). Researchers publish statistics from individual studies in academic journal articles, but comprehensive statistics are also collected by non-profit research groups and government agencies at the local, state, national, and international level and published on the web for the public.

When would I need to find statistics and datasets? If you're working on a research project about a community or social issue, you might use statistics collected by nonprofit or government researcher to describe your population/problem and show why its important.

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data.census.gov
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Provides access to many kinds of demographic data about peoples in the United States, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. territories. Check out the Tutorials and Data Gems for more info.

PolicyMap This link opens in a new window
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An online mapping and GIS tool with data on a wide variety of topics including demographics, real estate, health, jobs, and more. Create, save, download, customized maps and tables, or upload your own data to map.

View all data and statistics databases

Criminal Justice Statistics and Data

National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts This link opens in a new window
National Criminal Justice References Service Abstracts (NCJRS) provides access to information covering fields of law enforcement and criminal justice including statistics.

Bureau of Justice Statistics
Provides statistics on crime trends, homicide trends and characteristics, law enforcement management and administration.
The Counted
Crowd-sourced project in collaboration with The Guardian to count and collect stories of people killed by the police in the United States
FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)
Produced from data received from over 18,000 city, university/college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies voluntarily participating in the program. The crime data are submitted either through a state UCR Program or directly to the FBI’s UCR Program.
FBI Crime Data Explorer
Crime data for the nation are derived from Summary Reporting System (SRS) and National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) reports voluntarily submitted to the FBI.
Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS)
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The Office of Personnel Management Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (OPM FEVS) measures employees' perceptions of whether, and to what extent, conditions characteristic of successful organizations are present in their agencies. The OPM FEVS serves as a tool for employees to share their perceptions in many critical areas including their work experiences, their agency, and leadership.
General Social Survey (GSS)
Since 1972, the GSS has provided politicians, policymakers, and scholars with a clear and unbiased perspective on what Americans think and feel about such issues as national spending priorities, crime and punishment, intergroup relations, and confidence in institutions.
Gun Violence Archive
A not for profit corporation formed in 2013 to provide free online public access to accurate information about gun-related violence in the United States.
National Center for Juvenile Justice
Non-profit organization which collects statistics on juvenile arrest rates and other issues. Look in the publications tab for resources.
Pew Research - Criminal Justice
Public opinion statistics and reports on criminal justice topics
Public Policy Institute of CA (PPIC)
Since 1994, PPIC has helped California’s leaders to better understand policy issues by providing them with objective, evidence-based research.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
Statistics and analysis focused on international drug smuggling and associated crimes.

Open Justice CA
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A transparency initiative led by the California Department of Justice that publishes criminal justice data. Includes downloadable raw data (not just statistics).
CA Office of the Attorney General
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The Attorney General represents the People of California in civil and criminal matters before trial courts, appellate courts and the supreme courts of California and the United States.
Violent Crime Rate from the California Department of Public Health
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Data table contains data on the rate of violent crime (crimes per 1,000 population) for California, its regions, counties, cities and towns.
Criminal Justice data from the State of Calfornia
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A transparency initiative led by the California Department of Justice that publishes criminal justice data so we can understand how we are doing, hold ourselves accountable, and improve public policy to make California safer.

LASD Crime & Arrest Statistics
From 1996-present, compiled by the LA County Sheriff's Department
LA Public Safety Data
Safe city data including crime from the open data portal for the City of Los Angeles.
CSUDH Crime Statistics and Reports
Reports and statistics gathered for CSUDH in compliance with state regulations and the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Crime Statistics Act.

Statistics and Data databases

ICPSR This link opens in a new window
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ICPSR is a data archive of over 500,000 files collected from over 700 academic institutions and research organizations in the social sciences.
Historical Statistics of the United States (HSUS) This link opens in a new window
Historical Statistics of the United States (HSUS) Millennial Edition Online contains data on social, behavioral, humanistic, and natural sciences, as well as quantitative facts about American history from 1600-present.