Summary
The United States Sentencing Commission received information on 69,524 federal criminal cases in which the offender was sentenced in fiscal year 2018. Among these cases, 69,425 involved an individual offender and 99 involved a corporation or other “organizational” offender. The Commission also received information on 3,241 cases in which the court resentenced the offender or otherwise modified the sentence that had been previously imposed. This publication provides an overview of those cases.
Highlights
A review of cases reported to the Commission in fiscal year 2018 reveal the following:
- The federal caseload increased 3.8% from the previous fiscal year, halting a six-year decline in the number of federal offenders sentenced annually.
- Cases involving drugs, immigration, firearms, and fraud, theft, or embezzlement accounted for 82.8% of all cases reported to the Commission.
- Immigration cases were the most common federal crimes in fiscal year 2018 (34.4%). This number is a 16.5% increase from fiscal year 2017.
- Drug trafficking offenses fell by 14.1% over the past five years, with 4.5% fewer cases reported than in fiscal year 2017.
- Methamphetamine offenses were the most common drug cases. The 7,554 methamphetamine cases represented 39.8% of all drug crimes.