Vintage Highlights
- CJARS now includes data from 30 states, with longitudinal records covering nearly 60% of United States population
- Over 1 billion more lines of raw data have been processed and added to CJARS
- Advanced data quality control systems have been developed and implemented to improve data fidelity
The Criminal Justice Administrative Records System (CJARS) is excited to announce the 2022q2 vintage, which will be available through the Federal Statistical Research Data Center network later this summer! If you want to learn about this vintage, check out these resources on our website: (1) updated 2022 Q2 data documentation, and (2) updated 2022 Q2 benchmarking report.
For those interested in applying to work with CJARS, our Title 13 proposal guide provides details about the steps necessary to request CJARS through the FSRDC system. If you are already a current CJARS data user working on an approved FSRDC project and would like to incorporate the latest vintage of CJARS into your research, please reach out to your local FSRDC administrator for assistance.
Improvements for 2022 Q2 Vintage
Expansion in data coverage
- New historical data holdings have been added across both geographic and procedural domains:
- Courts – OK
- Incarceration – GA, IL, IN, MT, UT, and VT
- Probation – MT, UT, and WA
- Parole – IL, MT, and UT
- Updated data extracts in jurisdictions covered in prior CJARS vintage, which include:
- More recently recorded data (i.e., 2020 and 2021)
- Better coverage and quality (e.g., more complete coverage, variable availability)
- Updated records added in AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, MD, MN, NE, NJ, NC, ND, OR, TX, VA, WA, and WI
Advancement in data quality vetting
- Integration of automated checks against aggregate statistical series to assess quality and internal consistency.
- Data are benchmarked against all available federal statistical series:
- Uniform Crime Report
- State Court Processing Statistics series
- National Prison Statistics Program
- National Corrections Reporting Program
- Annual Probation Survey
- Annual Parole Survey
Improved data processing and harmonization
- Integration of the updated Text-based Offense Classification Tool (TOC) v1.0.2.
- Oversight of data production by new staff with 2+ decades of justice records management experience.
- Human review of all coverage across jurisdictional/procedural domains to ensure accuracy for external users.
Questions about CJARS, the 2022 Q2 vintage, or future data acquisitions? Contact us at: cjars-data-users@umich.edu.