Commission Datafiles

Introduction

This page provides users with access to the Commission's annual and other special datafiles that support the Commission's research agenda. These datafiles exclude identifiers and provide fiscal year data for researchers interested in studying federal sentencing practices through quantitative methods. The Commission's individual and organizational datafiles may also be accessed through the University of Michigan's Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).

The Commission may also make available datasets which it has utilized in the course of conducting research and issuing reports or publications, unless release of such data would impact confidentiality or is otherwise prohibited by an interagency agreement relating to the Commission’s access to the data. When available for release, these datafiles may contain information collected during a special coding project performed for a particular report or publication and, therefore, will not be available in the Commission's fiscal year datafiles.

The complexity of the federal sentencing guidelines, and by extension, federal sentencing data can lead researchers to make errors when using this data. Guidance on how to avoid common pitfalls can be found in the Office of Research and Data's Research Notes series and presentation, "Effective Use of Federal Sentencing Data."

Available Sets of Datafiles

 

Individual Offender Datafiles

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.

 

Datafiles (downloads are SAS and SPSS compatible)

 

Supplemental Datafiles

Beginning with data from fiscal year 2018, the Commission made methodological changes to the way it analyzes federal sentencing data. New variables were introduced and others removed from the data released for that fiscal year. These supplemental datafiles provide additional variables not found on the individual offender datafiles before fiscal year 2018. These additional datafiles will enable users to conduct analyses with the Commission’s current methodology on data from fiscal year 2014 and later.

 

Organizational (Corporate) Datafiles

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). In these datafiles the organization is the unit of analysis. These files contain no information on individual offenders even in cases in which individuals as well as organizations are prosecuted for the same offense. These datafiles do not contain information from the Commission's Individual, Resentencing, or Appeals Databases.

 
 

Special Collection Datafiles

The Commission’s special collection datafiles were created as part of projects undertaken for the purpose of collecting information that was not regularly collected for the Individual Offender Datafiles. Some of this data has been used in Commission reports. The specific data used in those reports can also be found in the Report Datafiles section of this page. The datafiles provided here include all of the data collected for the project, other than administrative or quality control data.

 

Datafiles (downloads are SAS and SPSS compatible)

Criminal History of Federal Offenders
The Commission expanded its collection of criminal history information using recent technological improvements. The annual Individual Offender datafiles include the criminal history points and Criminal History Category calculated under the guidelines. This dataset provides additional information on prior offenses committed, the points assigned to those convictions under the federal sentencing guidelines, and the types of offenses that did not receive points.

Economic Crime Offense Types
Most federal economic crimes are addressed in section §2B1.1 of the federal sentencing guidelines. That section provides sentencing provisions for a broad variety of economic crimes. Convictions under more than 300 federal statutes fall under §2B1.1. The economic crime offense type coding project is designed to assign all offenders sentenced under §2B1.1 to one of 29 specific offense categories. This datafile provides the economic crime type variable collected by the project.

Enhanced Penalties for Federal Drug Trafficking Offenders
This data relates to drug trafficking cases in which an enhanced penalty may have applied because the offender previously had been convicted of a felony drug offense. Theses penalties are commonly called “section 851 enhancements” because the procedural statute that often applies in these cases is 21 U.S.C. § 851.

 

Report Datafiles

The following Commission datafiles were 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.

 

Datafiles (downloads are SAS and SPSS compatible)

Compassionate Release: The Impact of the First Step Act and COVID-19 Pandemic (2022)
This file contains the data used in the Commission’s report Compassionate Release: The Impact of the First Step Act and COVID-19 Pandemic (2022).

Federal Robbery: Prevalence, Trends, and Factors in Sentencing (2022)
This file contains the data used in the Commission’s report Federal Robbery: Prevalence, Trends, and Factors in Sentencing (2022).

The Organizational Sentencing Guidelines: Thirty Years of Innovation and Influence (2022)
This file contains the data used in the Commission’s report The Organizational Sentencing Guidelines: Thirty Years of Innovation and Influence (2022).

Life Sentences in the Federal System (2022)
This file contains the data used in the Commission’s report Life Sentences in the Federal System (2022).

Federal Armed Career Criminals: Prevalence, Patterns, and Pathways (2021)
This file contains the data used in the Commission’s report Federal Armed Career Criminals: Prevalence, Patterns, and Pathways (2021).

Federal Sentencing Of Child Pornography: Production Offenses (2021)
This file contains the data used in the Commission’s report Federal Sentencing Of Child Pornography: Production Offenses (2021).

Federal Sentencing Of Child Pornography: Non-Production Offenses (2021)
This file contains the data used in the Commission’s report Federal Sentencing Of Child Pornography: Non-Production Offenses (2021).

Federal Offenders Who Served in the Armed Forces (2021)
This file contains the data used in the Commission’s report Federal Offenders Who Served in the Armed Forces (2021).

Fentanyl and Fentanyl Analogues: Federal Trends and Trafficking Patterns (2021)
This file contains the data used in the Commission’s report Fentanyl and Fentanyl Analogues: Federal Trends and Trafficking Patterns (2021).

Federal Probation and Supervised Release Violations (2020)
This file contains the data used in the Commission’s report Federal Probation and Supervised Release Violations (2020).

What Does Federal Economic Crime Really Look Like? (2019)
This file contains the data used in the Commission’s report What Does Federal Economic Crime Really Look Like? (2019).

Mandatory Minimum Penalties for Federal Sex Offenses (2019)
This file contains the data used in the Commission’s report Mandatory Minimum Penalties for Federal Sex Offenses (2019).

Mandatory Minimum Penalties for Federal Identity Theft Offenses (2018)
This file contains the data used in the Commission’s report Mandatory Minimum Penalties for Federal Identity Theft Offenses (2018).

Application and Impact of 21 U.S.C § 851: Enhanced Penalties for Federal Drug Trafficking Offenders (2018)
This file contains the data used in the Commission’s report Application and Impact of 21 U.S.C § 851: Enhanced Penalties for Federal Drug Trafficking Offenders (2018). This data was taken from the Commission’s 2016 851 Datafile and its 2016 Criminal History Datafile. Information in those datafiles that was not used in this report are not included in the datafile below.

Report on the Continuing Impact of United States v. Booker on Federal Sentencing (2012)