177 million criminal justice events and counting
The figure below illustrates annual counts in the current CJARS database of five major events in criminal justice case processing: arrest or booking, charges filed, and the beginning of terms of probation, prison, and parole.
At this time, the CJARS database includes records on over 6 million criminal justice events per year in recently available data. These come from a variety of sources, with court records representing the bulk of the measured events. The figure above provides just an overview of events though, not an exhaustive list. We also gather, for example, information on case dispositions, sentencing, and program participation. A current primary goal is to improve procedural coverage to track the full lifecycle of criminal episodes.
Increasing geographic coverage
The map below presents a broad overview of coverage of CJARS data at this time. Shaded states are those where CJARS has collected data in at least one criminal justice domain. The legend provides more details on the coverage by state.
