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Glossary

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Expected average length of stay

The average daily population (ADP) divided by the number of annual admissions, then multiplied by the number of days in a year.

Family court

A court, usually with a limited jurisdiction, that handles legal cases involving a family, especially controversies between parent and child or husband and wife.

Family problem-solving courts (or family courts)

Address juvenile or family court cases of child abuse or neglect, adjudication of parental rights, and custody and visitation in which parental substance abuse is a contributing factor.

Federal arrest-related death

A death that occurs when the event causing the death (e.g., gunshot wound, self- inflicted injury, cardiac arrest, fall from a height, drowning) occurs while the decedent's freedom to leave is restricted by federal law enforcement personnel acting in an official capacity. Arrest-related deaths include—
  • any death attributed to any use of force by federal law enforcement personnel
  • any death that occurred while the decedent's freedom to leave was restricted by federal law enforcement prior to, during, or following an arrest—
    • while detained for questioning or investigation (e.g., Terry stop)
    • during the process of apprehension (e.g., pursuit of criminal suspect or standoff with law enforcement)
    • while in the custody of, or shortly after restraint by, law enforcement (even if the decedent was not formally under arrest)
    • during transport to or from law enforcement, detention, incarceration, or medical facilities
    • any death while the decedent was confined in a temporary holding facility designed to hold detainees for no longer than 72 hours (e.g., booking center, holding area, or staging location)
    • any death that occurred during an interaction with federal law enforcement personnel during response to medical or mental-health assistance (e.g., response to suicidal persons).

Federal court

A court established by the federal government that has jurisdiction over questions of federal law.

Federal death in custody

A death that occurs while the decedent was detained or incarcerated for violating federal criminal or administrative law and was housed in any facility designed to detain or incarcerate such individuals for longer than 72 hours. This includes all detainee or inmate deaths that occurred in any federal corrections, pre-trial, or administrative detention facility or any facility under federal contract to criminally hold, detain, or imprison or administratively hold or detain individuals.

Federal Firearm Licensee (FFL)

A federally licensed firearms dealer is licensed by ATF to engage in the business of manufacturing, importing, or dealing in firearms. An FFL must be enrolled with the FBI NICS Section in order to request a NICS background check.

Federal prisons

Prison facilities run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Prisoners housed in these facilities are under the legal authority of the federal government. This excludes private facilities under exclusive contract with BOP.

Federal Supervised Release

Established by the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (SRA), Federal supervised release is a term of conditional community supervision set by the court at the time of sentencing. The SRA also abolished release by a parole board, required a determinate sentence term, and limited the amount of good time that can be credited toward the sentence.

Felony

An offense, as murder or burglary, of graver character than those called misdemeanors, especially those commonly punished in the U.S. by imprisonment for more than a year.

Felony or serious misdemeanor

The category of offenses for which fingerprints and criminal history information are accepted by the FBI and entered in the Bureau's files, including the Interstate Identification Index (III) system. Serious misdemeanor is defined to exclude certain minor offenses, such as drunkenness or minor traffic offenses.

Financial fraud

In the National Crime Victimization Survey's Supplemental Fraud Survey, financial fraud is defined as acts that “intentionally and knowingly deceive the victim by misrepresenting, concealing, or omitting facts about promised goods, services, or other benefits and consequences that are nonexistent, unnecessary, never intended to be provided, or deliberately distorted for the purpose of monetary gain.” (See Stanford Center on Longevity. (2015). Framework for a taxonomy of fraud. https://longevity.stanford.edu/framework-for-a-taxonomy-of-fraud/)

Fraud

The intentional misrepresentation of information or identity to deceive others, the unlawful use of a credit or debit card or ATM, or the use of electronic means to transmit deceptive information, in order to obtain money or other things of value. Fraud may be committed by someone inside or outside the business. Includes instances in which a computer was used to defraud the business of money, property, financial documents, insurance policies, deeds, use of rental cars, or various services by forgery, misrepresented identity, credit card or wire fraud. Excludes incidents of embezzlement.

Full-time employees

All persons employed on a full-time basis, including all full-time temporary or seasonal workers who were employed during this pay period.

Full-time equivalent employment

A statistical measure that estimates the number of full-time employees that could have been employed if the reported number of hours worked by part-time employees had been worked by full-time employees.

Hate crime victimization

Refers to a single victim or household that experienced a criminal incident believed by the victim to be motivated by prejudice based on race, gender or gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. BJS's National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) Hate Crime Statistics Program are the principal sources of annual information on hate crime in the United States and use the definition of hate crime provided in the Hate Crime Statistics Act (28 U.S.C. § 534).

Head of household

A classification that defines one and only one person in each housing unit as the head. Head of household implies that the person rents or owns (or is in the process of buying) the housing unit. The head of household must be at least age 18, unless all members of the household are under age 18 or the head is married to someone age 18 or older.

Hispanic

A person who describes himself or herself as Mexican American, Chicano, Mexican, Mexicano, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central American, South American, or from some other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.

Homicide

Killing of a human being by another human being. The Arrest-Related Deaths (ARD) program gathers data on homicides that occur during an arrest process regardless of whether the homicide was attributed to law enforcement personnel or a civilian. Homicides by law enforcement personnel were included in the ARD collection because they resulted from a direct use of force by law enforcement officers. However, not all homicides by law enforcement personnel involve shooting deaths. Other types of homicides by law enforcement officers included deaths attributed to asphyxia during restraint, injuries sustained during an altercation, and the use of technologies, such as chemical agents and conducted energy devices.

Household

A person or group of people meeting either of the following criteria: (1) people whose usual place of residence is the same housing unit, even if they are temporarily absent, or (2) people staying in a housing unit who have no usual place of residence elsewhere.

Household income

The total income of the household head and all members of the household for the 12 months preceding the interview. Includes wages, salaries, net income from businesses or farms, pensions, interest, dividends, rent, and any other form of monetary income. Income was imputed beginning in 2015, so no cases have unknown income in 2015 and later. For more information, see Imputing NCVS Income.

The data visualization tool uses this coding for household income:

  • Less than $7,500
  • $7,500 to $14,999
  • $15,000 to $24,999
  • $25,000 to $34,999
  • $35,000 to $49,999
  • $50,000 to $74,999
  • $75,000 or more
  • Unknown (only available for 1993-2014)

Household size

The total number of people residing in the household. Includes household members under age 12.

The data visualization tool uses this coding for household size:

  • One
  • Two to three
  • Four to five
  • Six or more

Human trafficking

The commerce and trade in the movement or migration of people, legal and illegal, including both legitimate labor activities as well as forced labor.

Hybrid driving while intoxicated (DWI)/drug courts

Address alcohol- or drug-dependent offenders also charged with driving offenses.

Identity theft

Includes one or more of three types of incidents: (1) unauthorized use or attempted use of an existing account, (2) unauthorized use or attempted use of personal information to open a new account, or (3) misuse of personal information for a fraudulent purpose. Person level identity theft is captured in the Identity Theft Supplement (ITS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). From 2004 to 2010, household level identity theft was captured by the main NCVS.