Study data came from site visits over a 10-month period, during which records were thoroughly reviewed and over 52 pieces of information were tracked on each offender. The offender-based transactional statistics focus on every stage in the criminal justice process, with emphasis on the outcomes of crucial decisions. The report describes the history of the Ohio project, the chronology of the study, the process of building a consensus during the preparation for the study, the prestudy visits, and the pretesting. Also described are questionnaire development, the definitions used to classify 37 Ohio felonies as crime index offenses, the sample selection, data collection and processing, project costs and funding, and the plans for disseminating the data. A presentation of the survey instrument defines each variable, identifies field issues which influenced the structuring of the information categories, and lists the success rates in capturing the data being sought. Profiles of each of the criminal courts included in the study are also presented. Data tables show some incomplete preliminary study figures.
Overview of Criminal Justice in Ohio - Offender Based Transactional Statistics
NCJ Number
96402
Date Published
1984
Length
161 pages
Annotation
This report describes the structure of the Ohio's offender-based transactional statistics (OBTS) study which tracked about 2,500 major felons from 1982 court dockets through 61 criminal courts in 28 counties to provide clear, statistical answers to questions about case flow through the system.
Abstract