By Mark Motivans

This report provides national statistics on the federal response to crime for fiscal year 2022 and some statistics on changes over time. The report describes case processing in the federal criminal justice system, including investigations by U.S. attorneys, prosecutions and declinations, convictions and acquittals, sentencing, probation and supervised release, and imprisonment. It is the 36th in an annual series based on data from BJS’s Federal Justice Statistics Program, which began in 1979.

Highlights

• During fiscal year (FY) 2022, federal law enforcement agencies made 96,857 arrests, a 24% increase from the 78,068 arrests in FY 2021.

• In the 26,233 Drug Enforcement Administration arrests in FY 2022, the most common type of drug involved was methamphetamine (8,083 arrests), followed by other opioids, including fentanyl (5,375 arrests).

• Persons exiting federal prison in FY 2022 for nonregulatory public order offenses, including sex offenses, served more time (66 months) than persons exiting for violent offenses (56 months) or drug offenses (53 months).

• The median number of days from the receipt of an investigation to the decision by a U.S. attorney to prosecute or decline a matter was 60 days in FY 2022, down from 70 days in FY 2021.

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2023. 32p

By Peter Leasure and Hunter M. Boehme

This study examined whether public perceptions of police traffic stops and searches varied when participants were randomly assigned to receive various traffic stop and search statistics derived from research. We utilized an experimental information provision survey sent to head of households in South Carolina with an associated email address. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1) a condition where respondents were presented statistics on contraband hit rates (i.e., rate at which contraband is found during a stop), 2) a condition where respondents were presented statistics on racial disparities in traffic stops, or 3) the control condition. Results from roughly 4,600 respondents indicated that research on traffic stops and searches could impact public opinion regarding whether the police should conduct more stops and searches. Statistically significant differences were found with the contraband versus the racial disparity conditions and with the racial disparity versus control conditions. Looking at the overall probabilities (without regard to the p-values for the differences), respondents who received the racial disparity condition were the least likely to agree that police should conduct more traffic stops and searches, while respondents who received the contraband condition were most likely to agree that police should conduct more traffic stops and searches. However, it should be noted that probabilities for all conditions ranged from approximately 32% to 38%, meaning that most respondents did not agree that more traffic stops and searches should be conducted.

Drug Enforcement and Policy Center. February 2024, 20pg

By Nazgol Ghandnoosh, Celeste Barry and Luke Trinka

The United States experienced a 25% decline in its prison population between 2009, its peak year, and 2021. While all major racial and ethnic groups experienced decarceration, the Black prison population has downsized the most. But with the prison population in 2021 nearly six times as large as 50 years ago and Black Americans still imprisoned at five times the rate of whites, the crisis of mass incarceration and its racial injustice remain undeniable. What’s more, the progress made so far is at risk of stalling or being reversed.

Washington, DC, Sentencing Project. 2023, 34pg

By John Gramlich

More Americans died of gun-related injuries in 2020 than in any other year on record, according to recently published statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That included a record number of gun murders, as well as a nearrecord number of gun suicides. Despite the increase in such fatalities, the rate of gun deaths – a statistic that accounts for the nation’s growing population – remains below the levels of earlier years.

United States, Pew Research Center. 2022. 7pg.