Assessing information quality and “fitness of use” of Federal Justice Statistics Program data

• In Event: Administrative Data and Predictions

Abstract

The assessment of administrative data quality and the measurement of its “fitness for use” is a key challenge to expanding the use of administrative data for evidence generation and building. Administrative data are generally collected for a specific purpose unique to an agency mission. Awareness of key attributes of administrative data quality can result in a more informed use of administrative data when applied to inquiries beyond the purpose for which the data were collected. Using data from the Federal Justice Statistics Program (FJSP), this paper reports on findings from an application of the Data Quality Assessment Tool for Administrative Data— a tool developed by the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology’s (FCSM) Statistical Uses of Administrative Records Subcommittee. The tool includes six key dimensions of data quality: Relevance, Accessibility, Coherence, Interpretability, Accuracy, and Institutional Environment. Results are discussed in the context of administrative agency data describing the stages from arrest to imprisonment.

Author

• Mark Motivans, Bureau of Justice Statistics, USDOJ