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Glossary

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Midyear population

The number of inmates held in custody on the last weekday in June.

Mortality rate

A measure of the frequency of deaths in a defined population during a specified interval of time. It is usually defined as the number of deaths per 100,000 inmates. For example, the overall mortality rate for local jails in 2011 was 122 jail deaths per 100,000 jail inmates.

Motor vehicle

An automobile, truck, motorcycle, or any other motorized vehicle legally allowed on public roads and highways.

Motor vehicle theft

Stealing or unauthorized taking of a motor vehicle, including attempted thefts.

Completed motor vehicle theft - The successful taking of a vehicle by an unauthorized person.

Attempted motor vehicle theft - The unsuccessful attempt by an unauthorized person to take a vehicle.

Movement

In corrections, a movement refers to an admission or a release from a status, such as prisoner, parolee, or probationer. Unless specifically noted, a transfer between facilities does not count as a movement.

Multiple offenders

Two or more persons inflicting some direct harm to a victim. The victim-offender relationship is determined by the offender with the closest relationship to the victim. The following list ranks the different relationships from closest to most distant: spouse, former spouse, parent, child, other relative, nonrelative well known person, casual acquaintance, or stranger. See "Nonstranger" and "Stranger."

Municipalities

An administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly denotes a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them. A municipality is typically governed by a mayor and a city council or municipal council.

National Crime Information Center (NCIC)

An automated database of criminal justice and justice-related records maintained by the FBI. The database includes the "hot files" of wanted and missing persons, stolen vehicles, and identifiable stolen property, including firearms. Access to NCIC files is through central control terminal operators in each state that are connected to NCIC via dedicated telecommunications lines maintained by the FBI. Local agencies and officers on the beat can access the state control terminal via the state law enforcement network. Inquiries are based on name and other nonfingerprint identification. Most criminal history inquiries of the Interstate Identification Index (III) system are made via the NCIC telecommunications system. NCIC data may be provided only for criminal justice and other specifically authorized purposes. For criminal history searches, this includes criminal justice employment, employment by federally chartered or insured banking institutions or securities firms, and use by state and local governments for purposes of employment and licensing pursuant to a state statute approved by the U.S. Attorney General. Inquiries regarding presale firearm checks are included as criminal justice uses.

National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact

An interstate and federal or state compact, which establishes formal procedures and governance structures for the use of the Interstate Identification Index (III). It is designed to facilitate the exchange of criminal history data among states for noncriminal justice purposes and to eliminate the need for the FBI to maintain duplicate data about state offenders. Under the compact, the operation of this system is overseen by a policymaking council comprised of federal and state officials. The key concept underlying the compact is agreement among all signatory states that all criminal history information (except sealed records) will be provided in response to noncriminal justice requests from another stateregardless of whether the information being requested would be permitted to be disseminated for a similar noncriminal justice purpose within the state holding the data. The compact was passed by Congress and signed into law by the President in October 1998. The compact became effective in April 1999, following ratification by two state legislatures: Montana on April 8, 1999 and Georgia on April 28, 1999. To date, 25 additional states have entered into the compact: Nevada (May 1999); Florida (June 1999); Colorado (March 2000); Iowa (April 2000); Connecticut (June 2000); South Carolina (June 2000); Arkansas (February 2001); Kansas (April 2001); Alaska (May 2001); Oklahoma (May 2001); Maine (June 2001); New Jersey (January 2002); Minnesota (March 2002); Arizona (April 2002); Tennessee (June 2003); North Carolina (June 2003); New Hampshire (June 2003); Missouri (July 2003); Ohio (January 2004); Wyoming (February 2005); Idaho (March 2005); Maryland (May 2005); Oregon (July 2005); West Virginia (April 2006); and Hawaii (May 2006).

National Fingerprint File (NFF)

A system and procedures designed as a component of the Interstate Identification Index (III) system, which, when fully implemented, would establish a totally decentralized system for the interstate exchange of criminal history records. The NFF will contain fingerprints of federal offenders and a single set of fingerprints on state offenders from each state in which an offender has been arrested for a felony or a serious misdemeanor. Under the NFF concept, states will forward only the first-arrest fingerprints of an individual to the FBI accompanied by other identification data, such as name and date of birth. Fingerprints for subsequent arrests would not be forwarded. Disposition data on the individual would also be retained at the state repository and would not be forwarded to the FBI. Upon receipt of the first-arrest fingerprint cards (or electronic images), the FBI will enter the individual's fingerprint impressions in the NFF and will enter the person's name and identifiers in the III, together with an FBI Number and a State Identification Number (SID) for each state maintaining a record on the individual. Charge and disposition information on state offenders will be maintained only at the state level, and state repositories will be required to respond to all authorized record requests concerning these individuals for both criminal justice and noncriminal justice purposes. States would have to release all data on record subjects for noncriminal justice inquiries regardless of whether the data could be released for similar purposes within the state. The NFF has been implemented in eight states: Colorado, Florida, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Montana, and Kansas.

National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)

An automated system operated by the FBI established in accordance with the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to check the eligibility of prospective gun purchasers.

National Sex Offender Registry

The NCIC Convicted Sexual Offender Registry File is designed to help law enforcement agencies keep track of convicted sex offenders released into the community. The file contains records of persons: convicted of a criminal offense against a minor; convicted of a sexually violent offense, or who are sexually violent predators.

NCIC Protection Order File

Contains court orders that are issued to help law enforcement prevent acts of domestic violence against a person or to prevent a person from stalking, intimidating, or harassing another person. Orders are issued by both civil and criminal state courts.

New court commitments

Admissions into prison of offenders convicted and sentenced by a court, usually to a term of more than 1 year, including probation violators and persons with a split sentence to incarceration followed by court-ordered probation or parole.

NICS Index

The NICS Index contains records provided by state and federal agencies about persons prohibited from receiving firearms under federal law. All records in the NICS Index are disqualifying records and will prohibit the sale of a firearm. Most records in the NICS Index are obtained from federal agencies. However, authorized local and state law enforcement agencies may voluntarily contribute records to the NICS Index.

Non-deadly or less-lethal force

The level of force required to gain compliance that is not known to or intended to create serious bodily harm or death.

Non-Hispanic

Persons who report their culture or origin as something other than "Hispanic" as defined above. This distinction is made regardless of race.

Nonnegligent/voluntary manslaughter

Intentionally and without legal justification causing the death of another when acting under extreme provocation. The combined category of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter excludes involuntary or negligent manslaughter, conspiracies to commit murder, solicitation of murder, and attempted murder.

Nonstranger

A classification of a crime victim's relationship to the offender. An offender who is either related to, well known to, or casually acquainted with the victim is a nonstranger. For crimes with more than one offender, if any of the offenders are nonstrangers, then the group of offenders as a whole is classified as nonstranger. This category only applies to crimes that involve contact between the victim and the offender; the distinction is not made for crimes of theft because victims of this offense rarely see the offenders.

Offender

The perpetrator of a crime. This term usually applies to crimes involving contact between the victim and the offender.

Offense

A crime. When referring to personal crimes, the term can be used to refer to both victimizations and incidents.

Offenses

The crime(s) for which the offender was admitted to prison.

Operational capacity

The number of inmates that can be accommodated based on a facility's staff, existing programs, and services.

Other computer security incidents

Incidents that do not fit within the definitions of the specific types of cyber attacks and cyber theft. Encompasses spyware, adware, hacking, phishing, spoofing, pinging, port scanning, sniffing, and theft of other information, regardless of whether damage or losses were sustained as a result.

Other problem-solving courts

Include adult community, homelessness, general problem-solving (courts that address multiple case types and serve a variety of defendants with underlying problems), reentry (except reentry drug courts), parole violation, gambling, gun, prostitution, elder abuse, and other specialty courts.