The Processing Time of Criminal Cases in the Federal Justice System

• In Event: Linking Administrative Data from the BJS’ Federal Justice Statistics Program

Abstract

The amount of time required for a case to traverse the criminal justice system has been of great importance to both academic and policy circles as it relates to the cost of the case and can be used as a metric of efficiency. However, only a few studies have systematically analyzed criminal case processing time. Using administrative records from federal justice agencies compiled through the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ Federal Justice Statistics Program (FJSP), the current study examines the movement of federal criminal cases from entrance into the system to final disposition. We present how case processing time varies across federal districts and over time, and how defendant-case characteristics are associated with the timing of case processing. In this study, we also address the extent of non-random case attrition in administrative records-linking and analytic adjustments for such attrition in FJSP data.

Authors

• KiDeuk Kim, Urban Institute

• Bryce Elling Peterson, Urban Institute