The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) of the U.S. Department of Justice is the principal federal agency responsible for measuring crime, criminal victimization, criminal offenders, victims of crime,

correlates of crime The correlates of crime explore the associations of specific non-criminal factors with specific crimes. The field of criminology studies the dynamics of crime. Most of these studies use correlational data; that is, they attempt to identify variou ...

, and the operation of criminal and civil justice systems at the federal, state, tribal, and local levels. Established on December 27, 1979, BJS collects, analyzes, and publishes data relating to

crime in the United States Crime in the United States has been recorded since its founding. Crime rates have varied over time, with a sharp rise after 1900 and reaching a broad bulging peak between the 1970s and early 1990s. After 1992, crime rates began to fall year by ye ...

. The agency publishes data regarding statistics gathered from the roughly fifty-thousand agencies, offices, courts, and institutions that together comprise the U.S. justice system. The mission of BJS is "To collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government." BJS, along with the

National Institute of Justice The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is the research, development and evaluation agency of the United States Department of Justice. NIJ, along with the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Juvenil ...

(NIJ),

Bureau of Justice Assistance The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, within the United States Department of Justice. BJA provides leadership and assistance to local criminal justice programs that improve and reinforce the nat ...

(BJA),

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is an office of the United States Department of Justice and a component of the Office of Justice Programs. The OJJDP publishes the JRFC Databook on even numbered years for informat ...

(OJJDP),

Office for Victims of Crime The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) is a part of the Office of Justice Programs, within the U.S. Department of Justice. The OVC's mission is to provide aid and promote justice for crime victims. The office was created in 1988 in an amendment t ...

(OVC), and other program offices, comprise the

Office of Justice Programs The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that focuses on crime prevention through research and development, assistance to state, local, and tribal criminal justice agencies, including law enf ...

(OJP) branch of the Department of Justice.

Programs

The BJS conducts the Annual Survey of Jails of a sample of about 950 U.S. jails, and a periodic Census of Jails covering all U.S. jails. Data from these programs was used to show that local jails in the U.S. had a sharp decline in inmates from February to May, 2020 of perhaps 185,000 inmates, more than 20% of the inmate population, in response to the danger of covid-19 on a crowded incarcerated population. Many inmates were given an "expedited release".

BJS Directors

In 2005, the Bush administration replaced BJS Director Lawrence Greenfeld after he refused to remove certain racial statistics from a report, despite having published similar statistics in 2001. The following two references provide analysis and initial reporting, respectively. * Josephf M. Bessette * Eric Lichtblau"Profiling Report Leads to a Demotion"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', August 24, 2005. More recent directors have included Jeffrey H. Anderson, Jeffrey Sedgwick, Michael Sinclair, John Jay Professor James P. Lynch, and former Deputy Director William Sabol. Until 2012 the position of the BJS Director required a

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

approval, but since 2012 the post only requires the President's appointment.Hanna Kozlowska
Trump’s Man In Charge Of U.S. Crime Data Is Known For His Football Rankings

Government Executive ''Government Executive'' is an American media publication based in Washington, D.C., that covers daily government business for civilians, federal bureaucrats, and military officials. ''Government Executive'' is part of GovExec, which is owned b ...

, December 1, 2017. Accessed July 31, 2018 Alex Piquero is the current BJS Director.

References

External links

*
most recent reports

Research, Evaluation, and Statistics
account on USAspending.gov {{authority control Government agencies established in 1979 Crime statistics National statistical services

Statistics Statistics (from German: '' Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, indust ...

Statistical organizations in the United States 1979 establishments in Washington, D.C. Federal Statistical System of the United States

Programs

See also

BJS Directors

References

External links