Criminal Justice Administrative Records System (CJARS): Broadening Access to Integrated Justice Data

• In Event: The Criminal Justice Data Landscape

Abstract

The Criminal Justice Administrative Records System (CJARS) is a nationally integrated data repository designed to transform research and policymaking on the U.S. criminal justice system. At the University of Michigan, the CJARS team collects longitudinal electronic records from criminal justice agencies and harmonizes these records to track a criminal episode across all stages of the system. At the U.S. Census Bureau, harmonized criminal justice records can be linked anonymously at the person-level with extensive social, demographic, and economic information from national survey and administrative records. CJARS data are available to qualified researchers on approved projects through the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers (FSRDCs) and to the public through the Justice Outcomes Explorer.

Author

• Keith Finlay, U.S. Census Bureau