FAQ Listing

The Office of Justice Programs' (OJP) Jobs page contains information about and methods of locating BJS employment opportunities as well as job openings from other ares of OJP. BJS employs a variety of positions to fulfill its mission.

At the State level, criminal records are usually maintained by the state police or public safety agency. You should contact this agency in your state concerning records they maintain.

At the Federal level, these records are maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Detailed instructions for requesting a copy of the record from the FBI are available at: https://forms.fbi.gov/fbi-efoia-request-form.

The purpose of the Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) NCHIP is to ensure that accurate records are available for use in law enforcement—including sex offender registry requirements—and to protect public safety and national security. Also, NCHIP permits states to identify—

• ineligible firearm purchasers
• persons ineligible to hold positions involving children, the elderly, or the disabled
• persons subject to protection orders or wanted, arrested, or convicted of stalking or domestic violence or both
• persons ineligible to be employed or hold licenses for specified positions
• persons potentially presenting threats to public safety

   For further information about NCHIP, visit the NCHIP section of our site.

Go to Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Leaders Directory

The "What is the sequence of events in the criminal justice system?" flowchart summarizes the most common events in the criminal and juvenile justice systems, including entry into the justice system, prosecution and pretrial services, adjudication, sentencing and sanctions, and corrections. An online version of this chart as well as a discussion of the events in the criminal justice system are available on the BJS site (13.5" x 7.5"; 300 DPI). A color version of the chart can also be ordered. See our How to Find BJS Products page for direction on how to submit your request.

• DOJ Tribal Justice and Safety
• DOJ Office of Tribal Justice
• OJP American Indian and Alaska Native Affairs 
• National Institute of Justice: Tribal Crime and Justice
• Bureau of Justice Assistance: Tribal Justice Programs
• Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP): Tribal Youth Resource Center

• Census brief:  The American Indian and Alaska Native Population: 2010
• Press release of Census brief
• BIA: 2013 American Indian Population and Labor Force Report

BJS offers information on nonfatal and fatal violence against employees at work or on duty in a series of reports on workplace violence.

The National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) Program produces annual national- and state-level data on the number of prisoners in state and federal prison facilities. Findings are released in the Prisoners series and the Corrections Statistical Analysis Tool (CSAT) - Prisoners.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the nation's primary source of information on criminal victimization. Each year, data are obtained from a nationally representative sample of about 240,000 persons in about 150,000 households on the frequency, characteristics, and consequences of criminal victimization in the United States. The NCVS collects information on nonfatal personal crimes (rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated and simple assault, and personal larceny) and household property crimes (burglary, motor vehicle theft, and other theft) both reported and not reported to police. Survey respondents provide information about themselves (e.g., age, sex, race and Hispanic origin, marital status, education level, and income) and whether they experienced a victimization. For each victimization incident, the NCVS collects information about the offender (e.g., age, race and Hispanic origin, sex, and victim-offender relationship), characteristics of the crime (including time and place of occurrence, use of weapons, nature of injury, and economic consequences), whether the crime was reported to police, reasons the crime was or was not reported, and victim experiences with the criminal justice system.