CJARS returns value to participating criminal justice agencies through statistical reports and services. We offer these based on the project’s core strengths: the breadth and depth of the data we collect, the methodological expertise of our team, and extensive data from outside the criminal justice system, linked at the individual level. This catalog is a work in progress, and your feedback is welcome as we develop further products and services.
Statistical reports
Statistical reports provide aggregate analyses and group-level comparisons, not individual-level reporting. CJARS securely and directly delivers these to the organization providing data. We make no public release of these reports, and comparisons generated between jurisdictions and agencies are anonymized.
To produce a statistical report that is valuable for a participating agency, CJARS works with that agency to determine a topic and questions that are most relevant for the agency and within the capacity of CJARS to answer. The goal of these reports is to provide evidence that supports the decision-making processes of agencies. Examples of topics that CJARS could examine include changes in caseload size over time or rates of recidivism for certain types or groups of offenders.
Data and analysis services
Assessing Data Quality
CJARS can provide data quality assessments of agency database systems. Where are data missing or inconsistent? What fields can be created to increase the usability of the data system? We can work with your data users to design changes that make their work easier.
Cleaning and Harmonizing Data
As part of our efforts to harmonize criminal justice data, CJARS transforms data sets to account for missing data and to add variables to increase the usefulness of the data. If a data-use agreement allows it, CJARS can return an agency’s harmonized data. We can work with an agency to develop new views of the data to meet specific requirements. CJARS will never charge an agency for its own data or the common transformations we do to all criminal justice data. CJARS offers harmonized data to help develop an agency’s internal capacity to carry out research and analysis.
Supporting Mandated Reporting
State legislatures mandate extensive reporting from criminal justice agencies. In addition to information that may already be covered in CJARS reports, CJARS can produce tables, summaries, and reports customized precisely to meet your legislative oversight requirements.
Evaluating Policies and Programs
Evaluating program impacts is crucial for effective public administration. Whether a program “works” is fundamental for optimal use of public funds. CJARS can assess effects on recidivism, but knowing what works takes more information than just re-offending or re-admission figures. CJARS can examine changes that programs produce for other criminal justice agencies, as well as non-criminal-justice outcomes such as post-release employment and earnings. Our analyses can also identify how upstream criminal justice policies affect your caseloads.