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BJS Data Quality GuidelinesBJS Data Quality Guidelines
VII. OverviewBJS has published these Data Quality Guidelines to implement Section 515 of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (PL 106-554). OMB has issued guidelines under Section 515 which direct the Federal agencies subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35) to establish and implement written procedures to ensure and maximize the quality, utility, objectivity and integrity of the information that they disseminate. The BJS guidelines apply to a wide variety of substantive information and dissemination activities in order to meet basic information quality standards set forth by Section 515. Another purpose of these guidelines is to provide a framework under which BJS will provide persons an opportunity to seek and obtain correction of information maintained and disseminated by BJS that does not comply with these guidelines. These guidelines may be amended by the BJS Director if the BJS Director determines that good cause exists for an amendment. A. ScopePursuant to the OMB guidelines (67 FR 8452) and the DOJ Information Quality Guidelines, the BJS guidelines apply to all information that is meant for public dissemination by BJS if the information is disseminated by BJS on or after October 1, 2002, regardless of when the information was first disseminated. The BJS guidelines apply to BJS statistical products disseminated in all media (printed, electronic, or in other form). As is the intent of OMB's guidelines, the BJS guidelines focus primarily on the dissemination of substantive statistical information as enumerated in BJS' authorizing legislation rather than information pertaining to basic BJS or DOJ operations. The BJS Data Quality Guidelines listed herein apply only to BJS statistics as disseminated directly by BJS. The guidelines do not apply to BJS statistics that are presented, manipulated, or interpreted by any entity other than BJS. B. ExceptionsAs stated in the above section, the BJS Data Quality Guidelines govern all justice statistics that BJS produces and disseminates for the general public, including all statistics that are featured in BJS publications, on the BJS website, and in BJS press releases. In addition to the exceptions provided in the DOJ's Information Quality Guidelines, the BJS Data Quality Guidelines do not apply to the following BJS information: information limited to government employees, grantees, or contractors; archival records, correspondence with individuals, statistical or analytic products containing a BJS disclaimer, internal BJS records, materials not intended for public distribution, hyperlinks to information disseminated by entities other than BJS, and responses to requests under the Freedom of Information Act, the Privacy Act, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, or other similar laws. The BJS Data Quality Guidelines do not govern the entities to which the BJS website is linked. The BJS website only links to agencies and organizations with which BJS does business, including: other government agencies, professional organizations whose members provide technical advice or participate in BJS surveys, contractors, grantees, and commercial sites that provide software necessary to properly view BJS documents. It is BJS policy that links to other agencies or organizations are identified in the link title which specifies whether the site is operated by another government organization, partner sites that are funded by BJS in conducting its business, or other external sites for which BJS takes no responsibility. BJS Data Quality Guidelines only apply to the material on the BJS site and partner sites that disseminate BJS data to the extent that those sites disseminate BJS data. BJS is committed to its mission of providing the public with justice statistics in a timely manner; however, this mission is limited by federal protections as to confidentiality of certain information and the privacy concerns of human subjects of federally funded research (discussed more fully in Section IX). In urgent situations that may pose an imminent threat to public safety, the operations of federal, State or local criminal justice agencies, criminal justice information infrastructures, or homeland security, these requirements may be waived temporarily. C. Legal EffectThe BJS Data Quality Guidelines represent the practices, priorities, and policy views of BJS. They are not applicable to any component of the DOJ other than BJS. They are not intended to be, and should not be construed as, legally binding regulations or mandates. These guidelines are intended only to inform the public of the quality controls utilized by BJS and do not create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or equity, by any party against the United States, its agencies (including the DOJ or any DOJ component), officers, or employees, or any person. IX. Guidelines for Privacy and Maintaining Confidentiality of DataGuideline 1.1 To protect the privacy and confidentiality of persons involved as subjects of BJS data collections, BJS staff will ensure that all procedures for the collection, retention, and dissemination of statistics (including the procedures of BJS grantees) are subject to federal regulations concerning data confidentiality found at 28 CFR Part 22. Guideline 1.2 BJS must require its grantees to complete a Privacy Certificate as part of the application for BJS funding. Guideline 1.3 All research involving human subjects will be governed by the federal protections at 28 CFR Part 46 which provide for (among other things); legally effective informed consent to be given by human subjects, approval of the research plan by an Institutional Review Board under certain circumstances, and procedures to minimize risks to the human subject. Guideline 1.4 BJS staff will ensure that all paper and electronic data files and statistics in its possession are protected from external threats.
As a federal statistical agency that collects and disseminates a wide array of information, BJS has taken aggressive measures to protect the privacy and confidentiality of individuals from whom they obtain information. BJS has procedures in place to ensure that information collected by BJS that is identifiable to a private person may only be used and/or revealed for the statistical or research-related purpose for which it is obtained. BJS has procedures in place to ensure that copies of such information shall not, without the consent of the person to whom the information pertains, be revealed to others who are not involved in the collection and analysis of the information. BJS staff ensure that the identities of its human subjects are protected despite issues concerning sample size or the uniqueness of the statistical issue addressed by the data collection. Data must be aggregated as appropriate before public use datasets are disseminated. Data must not be disseminated that permits the identification of private information about an individual unless prior consent is obtained from the individual or the individual has agreed to participate in a project with knowledge that the findings cannot be expected to completely conceal subject identity. Adequate precautions must be taken by BJS and its grantees to ensure the administrative and physical security of identifiable data. Data collection plans must be designed to preserve the anonymity of private persons to whom information relates, including, where appropriate, name-stripping, coding of data, or other similar procedures. In order to protect information identifiable to a private person, BJS requires that a Privacy Certificate be completed pursuant to BJS regulations which state that "research or statistical information identifiable to a private person may be used only for research or statistical purposes." (28 CFR Part 22). BJS has designated
a Human Subjects Protection Officer to ensure that in accordance with
the requirements in 28 CFR Part 46, BJS protects human subjects who are
subject to research or the collection of data. The BJS Human Subjects
Protection Officer must ensure that risks to human subjects are minimized,
informed consent is obtained, and confidentiality is protected according
to federal law. Pursuant to the provisions of Part 46, BJS must submit
certain research projects to the review of an Institutional Review Board.
The BJS Human Subjects Protection Officer is responsible for the review
of each grantee's Human Subjects Screening Sheet for BJS-funded research
and data collection. X. Guidelines for Initiating Surveys, Censuses, and other Data Collections Guideline
2.1 BJS surveys, censuses, and other data collections
may only be undertaken to address a mandate from the U.S. Congress or
a U.S. Department of Justice policy initiative as determined by the U.S.
Attorney General or the BJS Director. Guideline 2.4 BJS data collections are guided by the principle that the time series associated with each data collection activity should be preserved to permit the measurement of changes over time. Discussion The collection of BJS statistics occurs when a determination is made by the U.S. Attorney General, the BJS Director, or the U.S. Congress that there is a policy-relevant need for a data collection. To assist the BJS Director in determining when a new data collection effort is appropriate, BJS staff will continually monitor the field of justice statistics by maintaining a dialogue with State and local partners, consulting with professional and academic experts in the field, and convening and attending conferences in order to present and discuss BJS statistics. Because the detection of changes in the justice system over time is critical to the effective evaluation of the performance of the justice system, BJS is committed to the preservation and continuation of its time series data collections. BJS will not attempt to collect statistics pertaining to any matter that the BJS Director reasonably believes to be outside the scope of its authorizing legislation. Similarly, the BJS Director will not permit BJS staff to attempt to perform professional functions that the Director reasonably believes to be outside the scope of BJS' authorizing legislation. XI. Guidelines for Survey Design and Data CollectionsGuideline 3.1 Data collections will be developed and conducted with an emphasis on cost effective methodologies, proven research methods, and established statistical practice. Guideline 3.2
All of the following elements will be determined according to established
statistical standards; sample design, proper sample size, pretesting protocols
for survey instruments, acceptable response rates, variables and variable
definitions, burden on respondent, and data collection method (use of
CAPI, personal interview, etc.). Guideline 3.4
For data collections conducted for the Department of Justice by the Bureau
of the Census, the Census Bureau personnel will be governed by the Information
Quality Guidelines applicable to the Census Bureau and/or the U.S. Department of Commerce. Prior to the collection
of data (either for a new or an ongoing series), BJS staff must critically
examine cost-effective solutions for both the short and long term. BJS
staff should regularly analyze the statistics that are currently available
in terms of relevance, quality, and timeliness to determine whether and
how to collect new justice statistics. BJS staff must utilize only proven
research methods and established statistical practice in every step of
the BJS data collection process. In accordance with the responsibility
of BJS to produce the highest quality statistics possible, the following
elements of BJS statistics must be determined according to established
statistical standards; sample design, proper sample size, pretesting protocols
for survey instruments, acceptable response rates, variables and variable
definitions, burden on respondent, and data collection method. XII. Guidelines for Data Transparency, Analysis, and ProcessingGuideline 4.1 BJS statistical products must provide the reader with a statement of methodology that is reasonably specific as to the methods by which the statistics were generated. Guideline 4.2 BJS statistical products must provide sufficient information to permit the reader to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the data. Guideline 4.3 BJS statistical products must provide sufficient information concerning instances where data have been imputed. Guideline 4.4 BJS staff must archive all analysis and data sets as soon as they become final in order to ensure the reproducibility of the published statistics.
Wherever possible, BJS publications and other statistical products should disclose the following elements: standard errors, response rates, coverage issues, modifications from previous data collections, caveats in interpreting the data, and any other information that might be valuable to the data user in interpreting BJS statistics. In order to ensure that the data are utilized in a responsible fashion by data users and policymakers, BJS must provide sufficient guidance in the interpretation of the statistics it publishes. BJS imputation procedures must be based on theoretical and empirical considerations and must make use of the most relevant data available. Published estimates based on incomplete data for which there has been no imputation should note this fact, and should be accompanied by a statement indicating the proportion of missing data when possible. In addition, all imputed values on a data file should be clearly identified as such. BJS staff must maintain a comprehensive archive of all survey instruments, data sets and setups and make them available to the public. Not only does this transparency enhance public confidence in BJS reports, it also provides a public record to ensure consistent treatment of variables (including weights and computations) over time for ongoing statistical series. XIII. Guidelines for Content and Verification of BJS StatisticsGuideline 5.1 The objectivity of BJS statistics must be vigilantly protected at all times by BJS staff. Guideline 5.2
All BJS reports and other statistical products must be subject to an objective
and appropriate verification process conducted by qualified BJS staff
other than the author of the report. Guideline 5.4
The public must have direct access to BJS staff members so that the public
may obtain answers to specific questions regarding the content of BJS
reports. Discussion Because the credibility of BJS data and the integrity of BJS as a Federal statistical agency depend on the independence of BJS, the objectivity of BJS statistics must be protected at all times. Every step in the statistical process must be protected from improper external interference and the appearance thereof. Only qualified BJS staff may:
These protections from external influence apply to all BJS-disseminated statistics and are not limited to those statistics that appear in BJS reports. The BJS verification procedures must be conducted by a qualified BJS staff member other than the author of the report at issue. The verification procedures must include;
The content of all BJS reports and other statistical products should be capable of being explained to any interested party including the news media, researchers, interest groups, policymakers, students, and other entities inside and outside of government. In order to make the content of BJS reports comprehensible to the public, the author must be identified on the report and contact information must be provided on the BJS website, including a toll free number where more information may be obtained. To facilitate public access to BJS staff, BJS maintains an "Ask BJS" link on the BJS website through which the public may submit questions relating to BJS statistics and reports. These questions will be routed to the qualified BJS staff member and handled in a timely manner. In order to ensure internal consistency among all BJS publications and statistical products and facilitate their use by readers, the BJS Style Guide governs all BJS publications produced by BJS, its grantees, and contractors. The Style Guide contains publication standards and other guidance relating to use of tables, graphs, spreadsheets, punctuation, capitalization, footnotes, and bullets. XIV. Guidelines for DisseminationGuideline 6.1 BJS should ensure that all statistics it collects are disseminated to the public as widely as possible, using all appropriate media. Guideline 6.2 BJS' dissemination policy is subject to Federal regulations concerning confidentiality and privacy (described in Section IX). Guideline 6.3 External links featured on the BJS webpage are not governed by the BJS Data Quality Guidelines that ensure the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of BJS statistics. Discussion BJS statistics are disseminated in both paper and electronic formats. BJS makes all of its statistics easily discoverable on the BJS website where they may be downloaded for public use. There is a high degree of security for the BJS website to protect the integrity of BJS statistics from external threats. The BJS Director must ensure that all data and reports are released to the public as soon as possible in order to comply with BJS' statutory responsibility to "provide information to the president, the Congress, the judiciary, State and local governments, and the general public on justice issues." (42 USC § 3732(c)(10)). BJS issues press releases on about half of its publications annually. BJS maintains a list to ensure that all interested outlets are notified about new publications via email or fax. At the moment that data are released to the public, all publications and new data added to the BJS website are announced on the "What's New" web page. BJS hosts a listserve called JUSTSTATS that sends email notices to subscribers of all new releases at the time of release. BJS also contributes to JUSTINFO, a biweekly electronic newsletter hosted by NCJRS that provides notices of publications, announcements, conferences, and solicitations for certain DOJ offices. The information posted on the BJS website includes hypertext links to information that is created and maintained by other public and private organizations in the United States and by other nations. The BJS website provides these links solely for our users' information and convenience. BJS linking policy limits links to sites of organizations that have a professional relationship with BJS including other government agencies, international statistical agencies, BJS partners, organizations that represent survey respondents, and sites that provide utilities for using BJS products.
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