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Overview of Federal Criminal Cases, Fiscal Year 2011

NCJ Number
240449
Author(s)
Louis Reedt; Melissa Reimer
Date Published
September 2012
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This publication provides an overview of Federal criminal cases which involved an individual offender or a corporation or "organizational offender" and in which the offender was sentenced in fiscal year 2011.
Abstract
Results show that The United States Sentencing Commission received information on 86,361 Federal criminal cases in which the offender was sentenced in fiscal year 2011. Among these cases, 86,201 involved an individual offender and 160 involved a corporation or "organizational" offender. Over the last decade, the number of these cases has increased every year except one. In fiscal year 2011, the increase was 2.7 percent over the number of such cases in fiscal year 2010. Cases involving immigration, drugs, fraud, or firearms continue to be the most common Federal criminal cases and make up the vast majority of Federal felonies and Class A misdemeanors. These four crime types have been the most common for the last decade. In fiscal year 2011, these crimes accounted for 83.0 percent of all cases reported to the Commission. Immigration cases continued to be the fastest growing segment of cases in the Federal system. In fiscal year 2011, there were 29,717 immigration cases reported to the Commission, an increase of 1,213 cases from the prior fiscal year. In the last ten fiscal years, the number of cases of this type has increased by 153.2 percent, while the total Federal caseload has grown by 33.9 percent. As a result, the portion of the annual caseload attributable to immigration cases has increased from 18.6 percent in fiscal year 2002 to 34.9 percent in fiscal year 2011. Immigration cases have been the most common serious Federal crime since fiscal year 2009. 16 endnotes