Subject Librarian
U.S. Government Data for Criminal Justice
A note about data access: U.S. Federal Government data is disappearing from agency websites. The links to data sources listed below will be checked periodically. If you are no longer able to access the data you need, check the Data Rescue Project Tracker (visit the Data Rescue Project homepage to learn more about their work). If you have trouble finding the data you need, please contact the subject librarian for criminal justice.
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Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting ToolThe Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool is brought to you by the Office of Postsecondary Education of the U.S. Department of Education. This analysis cutting tool was designed to provide rapid customized reports for public inquiries relating to campus crime and fire data. The data are drawn from the OPE Campus Safety and Security Statistics website database to which crime statistics and fire statistics (as of the 2010 data collection) are submitted annually, via a web-based data collection, by all postsecondary institutions that receive Title IV funding (i.e., those that participate in federal student aid programs).
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Corrections Statistical Analysis Tool (CSAT) - PrisonersThis new and improved dynamic analysis tool allows you to examine national and jurisdictional prisoner data for both federal and state correctional authorities. You can view year-end populations, admissions, and releases by legal jurisdiction, physical custody in private facilities and local jails, imprisonment rate, citizenship status, prison capacity, juvenile or adult age group, and sex.
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Crime/Law Enforcement Stats (Uniform Crime Reporting Program)The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program generates reliable statistics for use in law enforcement. It also provides information for students of criminal justice, researchers, the media, and the public. The program has been providing crime statistics since 1930. The UCR Program includes data from more than 18,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies. Agencies participate voluntarily and submit their crime data either through a state UCR program or directly to the FBI's UCR Program.
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FBI Crime Data ExplorerThe FBI's Crime Data Explorer (CDE) aims to provide transparency, create easier access, and expand awareness of criminal, and noncriminal, law enforcement data sharing; improve accountability for law enforcement; and provide a foundation to help shape public policy with the result of a safer nation. Use the CDE to discover available data through visualizations, download data in .csv format, and other large data files.
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Federal Criminal Case Processing Statistics (FCCPS) ToolThe Federal Criminal Case Processing Statistics (FCCPS) Tool is an interactive webtool that allows practitioners, policy makers, academics, and the general public to investigate and research various aspects about the federal criminal justice system. The FCCPS Tool enables the querying of data on the persons processed in the federal criminal justice system in nine cohorts across three case processing stages: (1) law enforcement, (2) prosecution/courts, and (3) incarceration.
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Justice Expenditure and Employment Tool (JEET)The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has developed the Justice Expenditure and Employment Tool (JEET). The JEET is a new, modern interactive data visualization tool. Data for the JEET are extracted from two U.S. Census Bureau collections: the Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances and the Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll. The JEET currently includes data from 2016 to 2019. In the coming year, BJS plans to add historical data from 1982 onward.
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Law Enforcement Agency Reported Crime Analysis Tool (LEARCAT)The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) established the Law Enforcement Agency Reported Crime Analysis Tool (LEARCAT) to provide access to incident-based data on crimes recorded by law enforcement. LEARCAT uses data from the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), as well as contextual information from other federal data sources, such as the U.S. Census Bureau.
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National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD)BJS stores the full data sets, surveys, and codebooks for most of their data collections at the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD). As soon as the data have been finalized. These raw or ‘micro’ data are what analysts use to generate the summary data tables found within BJS reports, statistical tables, and data tools. The archived data allow researchers to conduct secondary analysis of BJS data.
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National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) Dashboard (N-DASH) ToolThe National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) Dashboard (N-DASH) Tool modernizes public access to NCVS data with new, interactive online data visualizations. The N-DASH tool enhances the core functionality of the NCVS Victimization Analysis Tool (NVAT), increases the speed of conducting analyses, contains new data elements, and enables custom graphics and other modern features. The dashboard also provides direct and user-friendly access to the nation’s primary source of data on criminal victimization, beginning with 1993.
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Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Data Analysis ToolsData analysis tools on juvenile crime and the juvenile justice system provided by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). The applications provide information on national, state, and county population counts, as well as information on homicide victims and offenders, juvenile court case processing, and juvenile offenders in residential placement facilities.
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Survey of Prison Inmates Data Analysis Tool (SPI DAT)The Survey of Prison Inmates Data Analysis Tool (SPI DAT) is a new dynamic analysis tool that modernizes public access to the most recent SPI data (2016) with interactive visualizations. The SPI DAT allows users of all technical skill levels to readily analyze data, view selected charts, and create custom charts for a range of characteristics of the U.S. prison population. Filters can be selected to provide detailed results by specific characteristics. Users can choose to create data visualizations for persons in federal prisons, persons in state prisons, or all persons in U.S. prisons in 2016. Other modern features enable users to view additional statistics through the chart tooltip, display or hide chart footnotes, and download results.
International Data for Criminal Justice
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United Nations Crime & Criminal Justice DataUnited Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) collects data on crime and the operation of criminal justice systems in order to make policy-relevant information and analysis available in a timely manner to the international community. UNODC works on the development of standards for national crime and criminal justice information systems and for the conduct of victimization surveys. The office also aims to enhance the cross-national comparability of data through the development of key indicators and data reporting tools.
Library Licensed Social Science Data
In addition to the open access data sources linked above, the IU Libraries pays for access to data platforms with lots of social science research data. ICPSR and Sage Data both contain datasets relevant to criminal justice researchers and students.
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ICPSR
ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) supplies the numeric raw data from a variety of sources, including survey research, censuses, and administrative records. PLEASE NOTE: Users must log in to an individual account to access all content. Please see More Info for account setup instructions.
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Sage Data
Data analysis resource for social science researchers and students. Includes access to 13.5 billion U.S. and international datasets from over 90 sources. Users can manipulate datasets, compare multiple indicators and sources, chart trends over time, and map data on a single interface, as well as create customizable visualizations of the data.
