Office of Research and Data
About the Office of Research and Data
The Office of Research and Data maintains a comprehensive automated data collection system to report on federal sentencing practices and to track application of the sentencing guidelines. The office receives sentencing documentation; analyzes and enters case information; and produces periodic reports about the types of crimes committed each year, the punishment imposed for those crimes, and guideline application in those cases. These reports inform the Commission as it monitors use of the guidelines or considers amending them. In addition to information related to individual offenders, the office collects information on organizations convicted of crimes and, in conjunction with the Office of General Counsel, appeals in individual and organizational cases.
Working with the Commission’s comprehensive sentencing database and other data sources, the office provides short- and long-term guideline and sentencing-related research and analyses for the Commission and for the public. The office studies a variety of research topics including projections of the effect of proposed guideline amendments on the federal prison population, sentencing practices related to organizational defendants, and appeals. In addition, the office provides data and analyses on specific criminal justice issues at the request of Congress, the courts, and others. The office maintains a master file of guideline sentencing data, available to the public through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan.