Criminology - Research Guide: Law Enforcement & Courts

Overview of BJS' data collection on law enforcement agencies.

Statistics on the felonious and accidental line-of-duty deaths and assaults of law enforcement officers. Includes weapons used, use of body armor, and circumstances surrounding murders and assaults of officers. Available in PDF, 1996-present.

A national accounting of persons who die either during the process of arrest or while in the custody of state or local law enforcement personnel. 2003-present.

Data on over 3,000 state and local law enforcement agencies. Conducted every 3 or 4 years since 1987. Variable include agency responsibilities, operating expenditures, job functions of sworn and civilian employees, officer salaries and special pay, demographic characteristics of officers, weapons and armor policies, education and training requirements, computers and information systems, vehicles, special units, and community policing activities. Survey datasets available from NACJD with online analysis tools.

Triennial NCVS survey supplement, 1996-present, of nationwide residents 16 or older, on characteristics of persons who had some type of contact with police during the past year. First round (1996) titled, Police Use of Force. Datasets available through NACJD with online analysis tools.

Statistical profiles for each of the 12 U.S. courts of appeals and 94 U.S. district courts. 1997-present.

In PDF format, 1995-present.

Interactive tables, 2012-present. Archived annual reports, 1975-2018.

Comprehensive information describing suspects and defendants processed in the federal criminal justice system. Available in Excel, CSV, chart, and PDF formats. 1998-present.

FOIA-driven data warehouse and tools providing direct dynamic access to a wide range of data concerning federal criminal, civil and administrative enforcement (including performance data on individual judges and federal prosecutors), federal staffing, federal funding, and other topics

Biographical information (birthdate and place, federal judicial service and professional career service, and education) and caseload information for individual judges handling criminal and civil cases in federal district courts, for immigration court judges operating under the US Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, and for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) judges, who are federal district court judges appointed to the FISA court by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

(aka National Census of State Court Prosecutors) Periodic survey of state-court prosecutorial activities nationwide, with a variety of administrative and legal issues facing prosecutors who handle felony cases in state courts. Also called National Survey of Prosecutors.

(aka National Survey Of Indigent Defense Systems, Census of Public Defender Offices) Infrequent surveys of all forms of indigent defense public defender, contract counsel and assigned or appointed counsel in all fifty states and the District of Columbia.