Activities & Programs

This year BJS will:

• Conduct 240,000 interviews, involving 160,000 unique persons in about 95,000 households, about any experiences those persons may have had as crime victims. 
• Describe characteristics and consequences of reported and unreported criminal victimizations experienced by persons throughout the nation.
• Analyze operations of some 50,000 agencies, offices, courts, and institutions that together comprise the justice system.
• Count populations and conduct sample surveys among the more than 6 million persons who, during an average day, are subject to the care, custody, or control of federal, state, and local criminal justice authorities.
• Maintain more than four dozen major data collection series from which it publishes and distributes reports nationwide.
• Undertake special data collections and analyses to respond to programmatic, policy, and legislative needs of the Department of Justice, the Administration, Congress, and the criminal justice community.
• Maintain a website and data archive to make data and statistics available to stakeholders, including scholars, students, policy-makers, the media, and others around the world.
• Provide assistance to users in identifying sources of BJS information, interpreting statistical data from BJS series and data collections, and in understanding the methodologies of BJS surveys.

BJS supports funding programs including: 

Criminal justice statistics programs

• Data collection and processing
• Statistical and methodological research

Grant programs to assist state, local, and tribal governments

• National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP)
• NICS Act Record Improvement Program (NARIP)
• State Justice Statistics (SJS) Program

For more information about these programs, see Programs. For information on how to apply, see Funding & Awards.

Data are published annually on:

• Criminal victimization
• Populations under correctional supervision
• Federal criminal offenders and case processing

Periodic data series include:

• Administration of law enforcement agencies and correctional facilities
• Prosecutorial practices and policies
• State court case processing
• Felony convictions
• Characteristics of correctional populations
• Criminal justice expenditure and employment
• Civil case processing in State courts
• Special studies on other criminal justice topics

Additional information about BJS data collection activities:

• U.S. Census Bureau collects data for a number of BJS statistical series
• BJS coordinates with other Department of Justice statistical programs, such as the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program
• BJS's Federal Justice Statistics Program collects data from other Federal agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service, Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons