The Bureau of Justice Statistics is a data collection arm of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs. Founded in 1979, the bureau collects and analyzes statistics related to the nation’s justice system.
Its website provides detailed information on crime, criminal offenders and victims of crime, and also contains reports on special topics, such as homicide trends and firearm sales. The raw data for the bureau’s material comes from the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, the National Incident-Based Reporting System and other federal agencies. The bureau lists related websites, some of which also provide valuable statistics on the justice system.
The bureau supports the Criminal Justice Sourcebook, which brings together data from more than 100 sources, including the bureau. The site is updated frequently and is a repository for more than 1,000 tables and historical data dating back to 1994.
Comments: The Bureau of Justice Statistics is a trusted source for facts and figures pertinent to federal, state and local crime and the justice system.