Felony Defendants in Large Urban Counties, 2009 - Statistical Tables

• NCJ Number: 243777
• Date Published: December 2013
• Author(s): Brian A. Reaves, Ph.D.
• Length: 40 pages
• Agencies: BJS
• Publication Type: Statistics

Annotation

Data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics' 2009 State Court Processing Statistics (SCPS) program - which periodically tracks a sample of felony cases filed in the Nation's 75 most populous counties - cover arrest charges, demographic characteristics, criminal histories, pretrial processing, adjudication, and sentencing.

Abstract

Presents data on felony defendants for cases filed in May 2009 and followed up for up to 1 year after filing (2 years for murder cases); statistics covered include arrest charges, demographic characteristics, criminal histories, pretrial processing, adjudication, and sentencing. Selected trends on factors associated with changes in the use of incarceration for different demographic groups observed since 1990 are also presented. Data are from the Bureau of Justice Statistics' State Court Processing Statistics (SCPS) program, which periodically tracks a sample of felony cases filed in a representative sample of 40 of the nation's 75 most populous counties.

From 1990 to 2009

• The percentage of defendants charged with a public-order offense increased from 7% to 13%, while the percentage of property defendants dropped from 34% to 29%.
• The percentage of female defendants rose from 14% to 17%.
• The percentage of pretrial releases that included financial conditions climbed from 37% to 61%, including an increase from 24% to 49% in the use of surety bonds.