Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics, 1997

• NCJ Number: 176328
• Date Published: October 1999
• Publication Series: Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics
• Publication Type: Publication

Annotation

Presents national-level statistics describing all aspects of processing in the Federal criminal justice system for 1997.

Abstract

Presents national-level statistics describing all aspects of processing in the Federal criminal justice system, including investigations by U.S. attorneys, prosecutions and declinations, pretrial release and detention, convictions and acquittals, sentencing, appeals, and corrections for 1997. Interactive tabulations of Federal criminal case processing data are available from the Federal Justice Statistics Resource Center.

Highlights

• During 1997 U.S. attorneys initiated criminal investigations of 110,034 suspects. They concluded investigations of 99,459 suspects.
• Criminal charges were filed in U.S. district courts against 69,351 defendants during 1997. Criminal cases were concluded against 64,956 defendants during 1997. Eighty-seven percent (or 56,570) of all defendants were convicted. Most felony convictions were obtained by guilty plea (93%).
• Drug defendants comprised 42% of felony convictions, defendants charged with property and public-order offenses each comprised 26% of the felony convictions, and defendants charged with violent offenses comprised the remaining 6% of felony convictions.