Introduction to Criminal Case Reporting

 

The criminal case reporting matrices have been completely redesigned, with changes emphasizing the collection of more detailed information on offense seriousness and the ability to capture the offense elements that often determine how a case will be processed through the system.  Three features of the new reporting scheme deserve special mention and discussion.

 

First, as under the old reporting scheme, a distinction is made between felony and misdemeanor cases.  The new Caseload Summary and Manner of Disposition matrices encourage a more comprehensive count by distinguishing major subcategories of the criminal caseload:  Person, Domestic Violence, Property, Drug, Weapon, Public Order, and three Motor Vehicle offenses.  In addition, categories track the number of Appeals from Limited Jurisdiction Courts, and an Other Criminal category tracks cases that do not fit within the specified classifications.

 

Second, the Caseload Summary matrix has been redesigned to capture more detailed information about case activity.  In addition to reporting new filings and dispositions, the matrix now allows for the reporting of Active and Inactive pending cases, Reopened and Reactivated cases, Entry of Judgment and Reopened Dispositions, and cases that are Placed on Inactive Status.  The reporting categories have been augmented to gain a better understanding of court workload.  Examples assist in explaining how to record different case management events.

 

Third, the revised Manner of Disposition matrix allows for consistency with the Caseload Summary matrix by using more descriptive and up-to-date disposition types to better describe workload in the courts.  The Manner of Disposition matrix is separated into Trial Dispositions and Non-Trial Dispositions.  Non-Trial dispositions include Guilty Plea, Nolle Prosequi, Deferred Adjudication, Dismissal, Transfer to Another Court, Bindover (for lower jurisdiction courts), and Other Non-Trial categories.  Trial categories distinguish between Jury Trial and Bench Trial dispositions, with subcategories of Guilty Verdict or Guilty Judgment, Acquittal, and Guilty Plea After Trial Start.

 

An important advantage of the new criminal case reporting scheme is the ability to better match offense types with other justice system coding schemes for purposes of case tracking and data unification. The new definitions, developed by the Court Statistics Project (CSP) advisory committee and staff, are general categories for reporting the types of criminal cases that flow through the courts.  They are not meant to be legal definitions of crimes; rather, they are a means to map various criminal case type terminologies across states into similar categories.  State statutes must be very specific in defining crimes so that persons facing prosecution will know the exact charges being placed against them.  Unlike state statutes, CSP definitions must be generic in order not to exclude varying state statutes relating to the same type of offense.  Accordingly, the new CSP offense-reporting categories represent groups of offenses based in the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) and National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) definitions maintained by the FBI.

 

The FBI uses common legal definitions found in Black’s Law Dictionary, the Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook, and the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) Uniform Offense Classifications.  Since many state statutes are also based on common legal definitions (though they may vary as to specifics), most should be able to translate their unique case types into the new CSP categories.  In fact, many states are already capable of this.

 

Since some states are already capable of reporting criminal cases using various coding schemes (like NIBRS, UCR, or NCIC), the Court Statistics Project has created cross-reference tables to translate the most common coding formats into the new CSP categories.  Two are included here:  (1) the new CSP case categories cross-referenced to NIBRS codes and (2) the new CSP case categories cross-referenced to UCR codes.

 

Other tables and publications cross-reference frequently used offense-coding schemes.  A good site for this type of reference information is the Justice Research and Statistics Association Incident-Based Reporting (JSRA IBR) Resource Center at www.jrsainfo.org/ibrrc/index.html.  In addition, complete definitions of UCR and NIBRS offenses are available on the FBI UCR Web site at www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm.