Bureau of Justice Statistics Fiscal Year 1998: At a Glance

• NCJ Number: 169285
• Date Published: May 1998
• Length: 22 pages
• Author(s): Lisa Price-Grear
• Agencies: BJS
• Publication Type: Report (Annual/Periodic)

Annotation

Following a general description of the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), this report describes new BJS activities for fiscal year 1998, as well as ongoing BJS statistical series and programs; the report concludes with an explanation of how to use BJS services.

Abstract

BJS is the primary source for justice statistics in the United States. It collects, analyzes, publishes, and disseminates information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government. In fiscal year 1998, BJS will begin administering the National Sex Offender Registry Grant Program, which supports the President's goal of establishing an effective national registry of sex offenders. Also, in response to the statistical reporting requirements of the Hate Crime Statistics Act, BJS will examine ways to improve participation by law enforcement agencies in collecting and reporting hate crime statistics to the FBI, and it will profile local responses to hate crime. Other BJS fiscal year 1998 activities pertain to a national survey of DNA laboratories, a national census of pretrial programs, a crime and justice database on the BJS Internet site, statistics on the length of stay for prison populations, and a recidivism study. Ongoing BJS statistical series and programs pertain to crimes and victims, criminal offenders, all aspects of justice system operation, firearms and crime, international statistics, general criminal justice statistics, State justice statistics programs, the Visiting Research Fellowship Program, and criminal records systems. The report concludes with a description of the various mechanisms BJS uses to disseminate information and statistics and how to use these mechanisms.