Challenges in Setting Priorities for a Small Federal Statistical Agency with a Broad Mission

• In Event: Presidential Panel: The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice III: Taking Stock of Crime Statistics Since "The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society"

Abstract

The Commission espoused a broad mission for the National Criminal Justice Statistics Center and therefore for BJS. This presentation will discuss how BJS has gone about establishing priorities in responding to the breadth of its statutory authorities and the efforts it has taken to improve crime statistics both internal to BJS and through collaboration with the FBI. It will address the BJS use of alternative sources of data and its responses to challenges presented by private sector data generators, and the collaborative partnerships that BJS has created to achieve some of the Commission's highest priorities.

Author

• William Sabol, Georgia State University