Research
The Commission collects, analyzes, and disseminates a broad array of information on federal crime and sentencing practices. The Office of Research and Data collects data from documents submitted by the courts in each case in which a defendant is sentenced. From that data, the Commission prepares and disseminates public reports on a wide variety of sentencing issues. The Commission also uses this data in its consulting capacity to the courts, Congress, and the Executive Branch.


Explore our research and data reports below or download our datafiles and perform your own analysis.
Public Access to Commission Data and Documents

Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics
Latest Sourcebook
Interactive SourceBook
Quick Facts
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  • Federal Offenders in Prison
    As of May 2019, there were 180,260 offenders incarcerated in the Bureau of Prisons. Of these offenders, 156,300 are serving a sentence for a federal conviction, most commonly for drug offenses (N=73,660). Slightly more than half of offenders in the Federal Bureau of Prisons (51.3%) were sentenced...

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  • Organizational Offenders
    (September 2019) In fiscal year 2018, there were 99 organizations convicted of a federal offense, a decrease from the previous year. These offenders can include corporations, partnerships, pension funds, and non-profits. The most common offenses committed by these offenders were environmental and...

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Research Reports
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Data Reports
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  • Quarterly Sentencing Updates

    (September 2019) The preliminary data in these reports present selected quarterly sentencing information submitted to the Commission by the U.S. Courts.

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  • 2018 Federal Sentencing Statistics

    (August 2019)  These reports compare FY 2018 federal sentencing statistics for each judicial district, judicial circuit, and state to the nation as a whole.

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  • Overview of Federal Criminal Cases, Fiscal Year 2018

    (June 2019) This publication presents a broad overview of federal sentencing data for fiscal year 2018. It provides a brief, easy-to-use reference on the types of criminal cases handled by federal courts and the punishments imposed on offenders convicted in those cases. 

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  • Retroactivity Analyses and Data Reports

    (September 2019) These reports present data on federal cases in which a motion for a reduced sentence was considered as a result of a federal statute or an amendment to the federal sentencing guidelines.

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  • Guideline Application Frequencies

    (May 2019) These annual reports provide data on the frequency of application of specific guidelines, including increases for aggravating factors and decreases for mitigating factors.

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  • Prison & Sentencing Impact Assessments

    (January 2019) When possible, the Commission performs prison and sentencing impact assessments as part of its consideration of amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines. The Commission also is often asked to perform prison and sentencing impact assessments for Congress.

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Commission Datafiles
 
Individual Offenders

The Commission's individual datafiles provide information on the sentences imposed in cases involving individuals. In these datafiles the individual is the unit of analysis. These datafiles do not contain information from the Commission's Organizational, Resentencing, or Appeals Databases.

Corporate Offenders

The Commission's organizational datafiles provide information on the sentences imposed in cases involving organizational offenders (i.e., corporations, partnerships, and other entities having a legal existence separate from the individuals having an interest in them).

Special Projects

Commission datafiles that are used in various reports to Congress. These datafiles may contain information collected during a special coding project performed for a particular report and, therefore, will not be available in the Commission's fiscal year datafiles.

 

Reports to Congress
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