Statistics and Data Sets
- Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new windowThe standard source for the quantitative facts of American history. Topics ranging from migration and health to crime and the Confederate States of America are each placed in historical context by a recognized expert in the field.
This web site provides search and browsing access to abstracts and data sets in the world's largest archive of computerized social science data. Search or browse title of study, principal investigator, words in abstract, or study number. Browse major research categories. Here is a link to a pref-formatted search on data sets related to the courts. The entries for these studies often contain references to scholarly articles that were written using these data sets.
The mission of the BJS is to collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government.
The Court Statistics Project (CSP) publishes caseload data from the courts of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. These data are provided by the offices of the state court administrator in those jurisdictions and are harmonized to make them comparable across states.
Founded in 1990, the Death Penalty Information Center is a national non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment. See their Execution Database with data on all executions since 1976. Additional historical data going back to 1608 is also available via the Espy File.
Created in 1983, the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority is a state agency dedicated to improving the administration of criminal justice. The Research & Analysis Unit serves as Illinois’ Statistical Analysis Center, which provides objective analysis of criminal justice data for informing statewide policy and practice.
The primary mission of the University of South Carolina's Judicial Research Initiative is to provide a comprehensive access point to the most recent and cutting-edge research on law and judicial politics. Be sure to check out their database page for links to compiled data about the courts.
The mission of the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) is to facilitate research in criminal justice and criminology, through the preservation, enhancement, and sharing of computerized data resources; through the production of original research based on archived data; and through specialized training workshops in quantitative analysis of crime and justice data.
The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) provides innovative leadership to federal, state, local, and tribal justice systems, by disseminating state-of-the art knowledge and practices across America, and providing grants for the implementation of these crime fighting strategies.
Established in 1986, The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration. They maintain the Race and Justice Clearinghouse, a resource for information, analysis, and commentary on race and ethnicity as they interact with the criminal justice and juvenile justice systems.
The Supreme Court Database is the definitive source for researchers, students, journalists, and citizens interested in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Database contains over two hundred pieces of information about each case decided by the Court between the 1946 and 2013 terms.
