The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is the U.S. Department of Justice’s primary statistical agency and is one of 13 Principal Statistical Agencies recognized by the Office of Management and Budget. BJS is committed to producing relevant, timely, credible, and high-quality statistical information, while protecting the privacy and confidentiality of its respondents and upholding public trust in its data.
This page lists key policies, procedures, and standards that guide BJS’s statistical activities and work.
General Governing Authorities
BJS Data Protection Guidelines. These guidelines summarize the various federal statutes, regulations, and other authorities that govern BJS and its statistical activities.
Statistical Principles and Practices. BJS embraces the professional standards and procedures articulated in the National Research Council of the National Academies’ publication, Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency, to ensure the quality, integrity and credibility of its data collections.
For more information: OMB StatsPolicy centralizes important information about the federal statistical system, including its members, priorities, and activities across the federal government.
Privacy and Data Management
Protection of Human Subjects. BJS and its award recipients comply with federal requirements for research projects that involve human subjects, in accordance with DOJ regulations at 28 CFR Part 46.
Privacy Certification. BJS award recipients must comply with BJS’s confidentiality and data security requirements [28 CFR Part 22], including the privacy certification requirements at 28 CFR Part 22.23.
Data Quality
BJS Data Quality Guidelines. BJS upholds high data collection and methodological standards to ensure and maximize the quality, utility, objectivity, and integrity of the statistical information it produces and disseminates. The BJS Data Quality Guidelines describe these standards.
DOJ Information Quality Guidelines. BJS follows the DOJ Information Quality Guidelines, in accordance with the provisions of the Information Quality Act and Office of Management and Budget governmentwide guidance.
Correction procedures. BJS allows an individual, unit of government, or private organization to seek the correction of published BJS data, in accordance with its established procedures.
Scientific Integrity
Statement of Commitment to Scientific Integrity. The 13 federal statistical agencies, including BJS, whose principal function is the collection, analysis, and dissemination of information for statistical purposes, embrace a common set of professional standards and operational practices designed to ensure the quality, integrity, and credibility of their statistical activities. These statistical agencies have affirmed in a signed statement their commitment to maintaining the highest level of scientific integrity in producing official statistics.
DOJ Scientific Integrity Policy. BJS upholds the highest standards of scientific integrity while conducting its statistical activities, defined by nine core tenets: reproducible; transparent; communicative of error and uncertainty; collaborative and interdisciplinary; skeptical of its findings and assumptions; structured for falsifiability of hypotheses; subject to unbiased peer review; accepting of negative results as positive outcomes; and without conflicts of interest.
Data Release and Dissemination
Data release policy: This policy outlines practices to ensure BJS provides equitable and timely access to its statistical products and data, while maintaining strong confidentiality protections.
Standard Application Process: This link provides information about the Standard Application Process (SAP) that is used to request access to restricted data collected by federal statistical agencies.
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): This link provides information about FOIA and the process for submitting a request. Federal agencies are required to disclose any information requested under FOIA unless it falls under one of nine exemptions that permit an agency to withhold information from release, for example due to statutory restrictions.
National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS): The NCJRS shares publications and other information, including grants and funding opportunities, and upcoming training and conferences from DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) agencies and National Institute of Corrections (NIC). The NCJRS also maintains a criminal justice library and serves as a resource for law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies.
Statistical Partners
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD). BJS archives microdata and accompanying documentation at the NACJD to facilitate and encourage research in the field of criminal justice. BJS data files maintained by the NACJD are available for download at no charge. Restricted data can only be accessed by approved researchers for approved projects via the Standard Application Process.
Federal Statistical Research Data Center (FSRDC): The FSRDC houses a select number of restricted BJS data, as well as those in collaboration with BJS and other federal partners (e.g., the U.S. Census Bureau) that contain sensitive information. Restricted data can only be accessed by approved researchers via the Standard Application Process.