Ensuring the Quality, Credibility, and Relevance of U.S. Justice Statistics (2009) / Chapter Skim
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6 Strategic Goals for the Bureau of Justice Statistics
6 Strategic Goals for the Bureau of Justice Statistics
Pages 277-296
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From page 277... ...
The recommendations are generally geared to improvements within BJS's various existing data collections -- for instance, ensuring a high-quality independent measure of crime in the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) , emphasizing conceptual frameworks in BJS's adjudication and law enforcement collections, and expanding its corrections series to study prisoner reentry into society.
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From page 278... ...
Such decisions are hardly unique to BJS -- at some point, all organizations must make such trade-offs -- but BJS's mismatch between resources and responsibility makes the decisions particularly difficult. Thus, in setting priorities, BJS directors have perforce had a short time horizon -- responding to a certain set of demands even though those decisions may have negative long-term consequences for individual data collections and the health of the agency.
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From page 279... ...
Specific constituencies for BJS data that are not represented on the panel or by groups who have spoken before the panel could make eloquent and compelling cases for their particular favored set of statistics; again, we do not wish to suggest that any weighting we could suggest is somehow paramount. Ideally, in evaluating and weighing individual data collection programs, it would be possible to know the causal impact of particular BJS statistics -- for instance, if BJS were to collect data and report estimates on X rather than Y , certain policy actions would result (or have different probabilities of resulting)
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From page 280... ...
. These changes provide resources separate from BJS's existing correctional statistics unit to study prisoner reentry issues; they are also consistent with comments made by BJS staff in remarks to the panel about the agency's interest in broadening its collections in the area of law enforcement.
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From page 281... ...
Recommendation 5.1: Congress and the Department of Justice should not require, and BJS should not provide, individually iden tified data in support of regulatory functions that compromise the independence of BJS or require BJS to violate any of the principles of a federal statistical agency. Position BJS as a Statistical Resource to the Department of Justice Recommendation 5.5: The BJS director needs to reach out to other agencies within DOJ, forming partnerships to propose initiatives for information collection that are relevant to policy needs.
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From page 282... ...
Continue and Strengthen State Justice Statistics Program and Statistical Analysis Center Partnerships Recommendation 4.1: Through its Statistical Analysis Center and State Justice Statistics programs, BJS should continue to develop its ties with the states, and more fully exploit the potential for using states as partners in data collections. Recommendation 4.2: Developments toward longitudinal and small area measurement systems should involve state partners who are active in data collection and knowledgeable about state justice sys tems.
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From page 283... ...
BJS would be well served to adopt similar language in its self-description, emphasizing that it is first and foremost a statistical agency, and that it is a statistical resource to the Justice Department but not an "arm" to further any policy objective. 6–C.2 Building Statistical Systems and Conceptual Frameworks Goal 2: To build, maintain, and utilize statistical systems that describe the extent and characteristics of crime in our nation and the status and response of the justice system.
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From page 284... ...
Use Criminal History Record Databases for Research Studies Recommendation 4.3: BJS should actively utilize the NCHIP program to improve criminal history records necessary for longitudinal stud ies of crime. Implement Core-and-Supplement Frameworks for the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
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From page 285... ...
Outline Research Agenda for Civil Justice Collections As discussed in Sections 2–C.2 and 2–D, civil proceedings are a major part of the overall justice system -- and a major gap in BJS's data portfo lio, relying essentially on one collection. But an expanded role for BJS in covering civil justice issues raises serious definitional issues, and develop ing a measurement system capable of taking an accurate reading of civil disputes settled privately is a very difficult prospect.
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From page 286... ...
A higher priority on methodological research is not a panacea; it might not have prevented the necessity of the cost-cutting measures that produced the recent "break in series" in the NCVS but it could have provided a fuller assessment of possible risks before those changes were finalized. By use of the term "statistical systems," this goal statement would give lesser priority to one-time data collections that have no enduring benefit to ongoing series or planned data collections.
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From page 287... ...
Build Capacity for Studying New and Emerging Types of Crime Recommendation 2.1: Consistent with its legal mandate to collect, analyze, and disseminate statistical information on all aspects of the justice system, BJS should (a) document and organize the avail able statistics on forms of crime not covered by the NCVS, the FBI's UCR and NIBRS data systems, and other major data series main tained by other statistical agencies, (b)
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From page 288... ...
Continue Coordination With Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention on Juvenile Justice Data Recommendation 2.2: In line with its original charge and to bet ter document and understand the contribution of juveniles to street crime and violence, the victimization of youth, and the conse quences for youth and society of their victimization and offending, BJS should develop juvenile victimization, crime, and justice sta tistical series suitable for describing the patterns of offending and victimization of youth, longitudinal progression of youth through the juvenile and criminal justice systems, and reentry into the commu nity and criminal system. Taking on this responsibility would require additional resources.
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From page 289... ...
As a federal statistical agency, it alone has the man date for independent, objective, statistical measurement, with the trans parency that can establish public trust in the information. In our assessment, the NCVS is sufficiently core to BJS's legally mandated duties and it's basic function as a statistical agency that it is difficult to imagine an effective BJS without a strong and continuing NCVS.
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From page 290... ...
Attorneys Offices and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to "such sums as may be necessary" in order "to improve services for the benefit of crime victims in the Federal criminal justice system, and for a Victim Notification System." Although creating similar access for BJS would require language in a legislative reauthorization, it stands to reason that some provision for a modest -- but, importantly, stable and recurring -- allocation from the Crime Victim Fund to defray NCVS expenses would be consonant with the intent of the fund.
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From page 291... ...
Its website provides ready and relatively easy access to an extensive backfile of BJS reports, summary tabulations, and data collection instruments; so, too, does the OJP–sponsored National Criminal Justice Reference Service which also includes content from the National Institute of Justice and other agencies. The summary tabulations included with report releases are accessible to more casual data users while high-end users are well served by BJS's
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From page 292... ...
Continue to Develop Mechanisms for More Accurate Data Compilation Recommendation 5.10: To improve the utility and accuracy of the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP) , BJS should work with correctional agencies to develop their own internal records to promote consistent data collections and expand coverage beyond the 41 states covered in the most recent NCRP.
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From page 293... ...
In the panel's assessment, the creation of a formal advisory committee would benefit BJS as a sounding board for specific data collection revisions, a reviewer of new research priorities, and a source of intelligence on new and emerging topics in criminal justice. A formal advisory committee would usefully complement feedback from ad hoc user and stakeholder workshops on specific data needs.
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From page 294... ...
To achieve that independence, in the judgment of the panel, BJS should be organizationally separated from units of the Justice Department that administer programs; its director should be a presidential, fixed-term appointment; it should not participate in regulatory activities; its products must not be censored; it should renew the NCVS; it should enrich its ties with state justice systems to the benefit of national statistical information. BJS should shape its statistical series with the entire justice system in mind, from the moment of a criminal act through all stages of the administrative consequences.
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From page 295... ...
STRATEGIC GOALS FOR THE BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS 295 the complexity of crime and the importance of information on the administration of justice to the public good. Rather, the problem is that BJS lacks the position of independence and culture of innovation that are -- with commensurate resources -- necessary for the agency to more fully meet its legally defined expectations.
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