Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
Official site: https://bjs.ojp.gov/
What This Site Is
Official U.S. government stats on crime, courts, prisons/jails, and victims.
What You Can Do Here
- Find national reports and trends on crime and justice
- See incarceration and corrections data
- Read data on courts and case processing
- Use victimization surveys (not just police reports)
- Download official tables and publications
Start Here (Pick What You're Looking For)
If you want to...
- Find national crime + justice numbers → Start with Data / Key Statistics or Publications
- Find prison/jail data → Look for Corrections topics and recent annual reports
- Find victim statistics (crime not reported to police) → Look for Victims → national victimization surveys/reports
- Find court/system info → Look for Courts topic pages and reports
How This Page Works
- Go to bjs.ojp.gov
- Use the top menu to pick a topic (Crimes, Victims, Courts, Corrections, etc.)
- Open a report or data page that matches your topic
- Check the publication date (newer is usually better)
- Skim the Key Findings / Highlights first
- Use Download to save the PDF or data tables
Common Things to Search For
- "prison population by state"
- "jail population"
- "recidivism"
- "violent crime trends"
- "victimization survey"
- "federal court statistics"
Good to Know
- BJS includes courts + corrections + victims, not just police crime reports
- Some numbers come from surveys, not complete counts
- Reports update at different speeds (some yearly, some less often)
- Always cite the report title + year when sharing findings
- Many statistics are based on samples, not complete counts