Reporting by Prosecutors Offices to Repositories of Criminal History Records. Technical Brief

摘要

States maintained criminal history records on over 64 million individuals in 2001, but some of those records had reduced usefulness because they were missing crucial information. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) surveys find that in nearly every State, a proportion of criminal history records lack a final disposition, which indicates the outcome of an arrest. In the process that creates a criminal history record, the arresting agency, the prosecutor, the court, and the correctional authority may provide the final disposition. For this report, BJS examined whether State court prosecutors ensure record completeness by regularly providing final disposition information (such as their declinations to prosecute) to State repositories. In 2003 the American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI) conducted a survey for BJS of chief prosecutors. The survey was mailed to a representative sample of 308 State prosecutors. Of these, 141 (46%) responded. The findings reported here are not statistically representative of State prosecutors nationwide. BJS' statutory mandate includes the responsibility to provide for research and improvements in the completeness of criminal history record information and information systems. In response to this mandate, BJS commissioned APRI to accomplish two tasks: Assess the degree to which State court prosecutors transmit final case dispositions to State repositories; Identify reasons why prosecutors do not transmit final dispositions.