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Felony Defendants in Large Urban Counties, 2004
Tracey Kyckelhahn and |
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Arrests | |
Table 1. Felony defendants, by most serious arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 2. Race and Hispanic origin of felony defendants, by most serious arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 3. Gender of felony defendants, by most serious arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 4. Age at arrest of felony defendants, by most serious arrest charge, 2004 | |
Criminal History | |
Table 5. Criminal justice status of felony defendants at time of arrest, by most serious current arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 6. Number of prior arrest charges of felony defendants, by most serious current arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 7. Number of prior convictions of felony defendants, by most serious current arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 8. Most serious prior conviction of felony defendants, by most serious current arrest charge, 2004 | |
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Pretrial Release and Misconduct | |
Table 9. Felony defendants released before or detained until case disposition, by most serious arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 10. Type of pretrial release or detention of felony defendants, by most serious arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 11. Bail amount set for felony defendants, by most serious arrest charge, 2004 |
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Table 12. Median and mean bail amounts set for felony defendants, by pretrial release/detention outcome and most serious arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 13. Time from arrest to release for felony defendants released before case disposition, by most serious arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 14. Percent of felony defendants who were released prior to case disposition, by criminal history, 2004 | |
Table 15. Released felony defendants committing misconduct, by most serious arrest charge, 2004 |
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Table 16. Released felony defendants who failed to make a scheduled court appearance, by most serious arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 17. Released felony defendants who were rearrested prior to case disposition, by most serious arrest charge, 2004 | |
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Adjudication | |
Table 18. Time from arrest to adjudication for felony defendants, by most serious arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 19. Adjudication outcome for felony defendants, by most serious arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 20. Adjudication outcome for felony defendants, by detention-release outcome and most serious arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 21. Conviction offense of defendants arrested for a violent offense and subsequently convicted, by most serious arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 22. Conviction offense of defendants arrested for a nonviolent offense and subsequently convicted, by most serious arrest charge, 2004 | |
Table 23. Felony defendants, by conviction offense, 2004 | |
Sentencing | |
Table 24. Time from conviction to sentencing for convicted defendants, by most serious conviction offense, 2004 | |
Table 25. Most severe type of sentence received by convicted defendants, by most serious conviction offense, 2004 | |
Table 26. Length of prison sentence received by defendants convicted of a felony, by most serious conviction offense, 2004 | |
Table 27. Length of jail sentence received by convicted defendants, by most serious conviction offense, 2004 | |
Table 28. Length of probation sentence received by convicted defendants, by most serious conviction offense, 2004 | |
Table 29. Conditions of probation sentence received most often by convicted defendants, by most serious conviction offense, 2004 | |
Table 30. Most severe type of sentence received by defendants convicted of a felony, by prior conviction record, 2004 | |
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Appendices | |
Appendix table A - Population, sampling weights, and number of cases, by SCPS jurisdiction, 2004 | |
Appendix table B - Most serious arrest charge of felony defendants, by SCPS jurisdiction, 2004 |
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Appendix table C - Gender and age of felony defendants, by SCPS jurisdiction, 2004 | |
Appendix table D - Race and Hispanic/Latino origin, by SCPS jurisdiction, 2004 | |
Appendix table E - Felony defendants released before or detained until case disposition, by SCPS jurisdiction, 2004 | |
Appendix table F - Failure-to-appear and rearrest rates of defendants released prior to case disposition, by SCPS jurisdiction, 2004 | |
Appendix table G - Adjudication outcome for felony defendants, by SCPS jurisdiction, 2004 | |
Appendix table H - Most severe type of sentence received by defendants convicted of a felony, by SCPS jurisdiction, 2004 |
Stratum | Number of counties | ||
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Sample | Universe | Weight | |
One | 10 | 10 | 1.0 |
Two | 10 | 18 | 1.8 |
Three | 10 | 22 | 2.2 |
Four | 10 | 25 | 2.5 |
The second-stage sampling (filings) was designed to represent all defendants who had felony cases filed with the court during the month of May 2004. The participating jurisdictions provided data for every felony case filed on selected days during that month. Depending on the first-stage stratum in which it had been placed, each jurisdiction provided filings data for 5, 10, or 20 selected business days in May 2004. Data from jurisdictions that were not required to provide a full month of filings were weighted to represent the full month (see Appendix A).
Number of days of filings provided | ||
---|---|---|
Stratum | Weight | |
One | 5 | 4 |
Two | 10 | 2 |
Three | 10 | 2 |
Four | 20 | 1 |
The 2004 SCPS collected data for 15,761 felony cases filed during May 2004 in 40 large counties. These cases were part of a sample that was representative of the estimated 57,497 felony cases filed in the nation's 75 most populous counties during that month. Murder cases were tracked for up to 2 years and all other cases for up to 1 year.
This report is based on data collected from the following counties: Alabama (Jefferson); Arizona (Maricopa, Pima); California (Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Mateo, Santa Clara); Florida (Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Pinellas); Georgia (Fulton); Hawaii (Honolulu); Illinois (Cook); Indiana (Marion); Maryland (Baltimore, Montgomery); Michigan (Wayne); New Jersey (Essex); New York (Bronx, Kings, Nassau, Queens, Westchester); Ohio (Franklin); Pennsylvania (Montgomery, Philadelphia); Tennessee (Shelby); Texas (Dallas, El Paso, Harris, Tarrant, Travis); Utah (Salt Lake City); Virginia (Fairfax).
Because the data came from a sample, a sampling error is associated with each reported number. In general, if the difference between two numbers is greater than twice the standard error for that difference, we can say that we are 95% confident of a real difference and that the apparent difference is not simply the result of using a sample rather than the entire population.
Offense categories
Felony offenses were classified into 16 categories for this report. These were further classified into the four major crime categories of violent, property, drug, and public-order. The following listings are a representative summary of the crimes in each category; however, these lists are not meant to be exhaustive. All offenses, except for murder, include attempts and conspiracies to commit.
Violent offenses
Murder -- Includes homicide, nonnegligent manslaughter, and voluntary homicide. Excludes attempted murder (classified as felony assault), negligent homicide, involuntary homicide, or vehicular manslaughter, which are classified as other violent offenses.
Rape -- Includes forcible intercourse, sodomy, or penetration with a foreign object. Does not include statutory rape or nonforcible acts with a minor or someone unable to give legal consent, nonviolent sexual offenses, or commercialized sex offenses.
Robbery -- Includes unlawful taking of anything of value by force or threat of force. Includes armed, unarmed, and aggravated robbery, car-jacking, armed burglary, and armed mugging.
Assault -- Includes aggravated assault, aggravated battery, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, felony assault or battery on a law enforcement officer, and other felony assaults. Does not include extortion, coercion, or intimidation.
Other violent offenses -- Includes vehicular manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, negligent or reckless homicide, nonviolent or non-forcible sexual assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, child or spouse abuse, cruelty to a child, reckless endangerment, hit-and-run with bodily injury, intimidation, and extortion.
Property offenses
Burglary -- Includes any type of entry into a residence, industry, or business with or without the use of force with the intent to commit a felony or theft. Does not include possession of burglary tools, trespassing, or unlawful entry for which the intent is not known.
Larceny/theft -- Includes grand theft, grand larceny, and any other felony theft, including burglary from an automobile, theft of rental property, and mail theft. Does not include motor vehicle theft, receiving or buying stolen property, fraud, forgery, or deceit.
Motor vehicle theft -- Includes auto theft, conversion of an automobile, receiving and transferring an automobile, unauthorized use of a vehicle, possession of a stolen vehicle, and larceny or taking of an automobile.
Forgery -- Includes forging of a driver's license, official seals, notes, money orders, credit or access cards or names of such cards or any other documents with fraudulent intent, uttering a forged instrument, counterfeiting, and forgery.
Fraud -- Includes possession and passing of worthless checks or money orders, possession of false documents or identification, embezzlement, obtaining money by false pretenses, credit card fraud, welfare fraud, Medicare fraud, insurance claim fraud, fraud, swindling, stealing a thing of value by deceit, and larceny by check.
Other property offenses -- Includes receiving or buying stolen property, arson, reckless burning, damage to property, criminal mischief, vandalism, criminal trespassing, possession of burglary tools, and unlawful entry for which the interest is unknown.
Drug offenses
Drug trafficking -- Includes trafficking, sales, distribution, possession with intent to distribute or sell, manufacturing, and smuggling of controlled substances. Does not include possession of controlled substances.
Other drug offenses -- Includes possession of controlled substances, prescription violations, possession of drug paraphernalia, and other drug law violations.
Public-order offenses
Weapons -- Includes the unlawful sale, distribution, manufacture, alteration, transportation, possession, or use of a deadly weapon or accessory.
Driving-related -- Includes driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, driving with a suspended or revoked license, and any other felony in the motor vehicle code.
Other public-order offenses -- Includes flight/escape, parole or probation violations, prison contraband, habitual offender, obstruction of justice, rioting, libel, slander, treason, perjury, prostitution, pandering, bribery, and tax law violations.
Terms related to pretrial release
Released defendant -- Includes any defendant who was released from custody prior to the disposition of his or her case by the court. Includes defendants who were detained for some period of time before being released and defendants who were returned to custody after being released because of a violation of the conditions of pretrial release. The terms "on pretrial release" and "released pending disposition" are both used in this report to refer to all released defendants.
Detained defendant -- Includes any defendant who remained in custody from the time of arrest until the disposition of his or her case by the court. This report also refers to detained defendants as "not released."
Failure to appear -- Occurs when a court issues a bench warrant for a defendant's arrest because he or she missed a scheduled court appearance.
Types of financial release
Surety bond -- A bail bond company signs a promissory note to the court for the full bail amount and charges the defendant a fee for the service (usually 10% of the full bail amount). If the defendant fails to appear, the bond company is liable to the court for the full bail amount. Frequently the bond company requires collateral from the defendant in addition to the fee.
Deposit bond -- The defendant deposits a percentage (usually 10%) of the full bail amount with the court. The percentage of the bail is returned after the disposition of the case, but the court often retains a small portion for administrative costs. If the defendant fails to appear in court, he or she is liable to the court for the full bail amount.
Full cash bond -- The defendant posts the full bail amount in cash with the court. If the defendant makes all court appearances, the cash is returned. If the defendant fails to appear in court, the bond is forfeited.
Property bond -- Involves an agreement made by a defendant as a condition of pretrial release requiring that property valued at the full bail amount be posted as an assurance of his or her appearance in court. If the defendant fails to appear in court, the property is forfeited. Also known as "collateral bond."
Types of nonfinancial release
Release on recognizance (ROR) -- The court releases the defendant on a signed agreement that he or she will appear in court as required. In this report, the ROR category includes citation releases in which arrestees are released pending their first court appearance on a written order issued by law enforcement or jail personnel.
Unsecured bond -- The defendant pays no money to the court but is liable for the full amount of bail should he or she fail to appear in court.
Conditional release -- Defendants are released under specified conditions. Monitoring or supervision, if required, is usually done by a pretrial services agency. In some cases, such as those involving a third-party custodian or drug monitoring and treatment, another agency may be involved in the supervision of the defendant. Conditional release sometimes includes an unsecured bond.
Other type of release
Emergency release -- Defendants are released in response to a court order placing limits on a jail's population.
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