2019 National Survey of Prosecutors

The National Survey of Prosecutors 2019 (NSP) will collect information from a sample of approximately 750 prosecutor offices that handle felony cases in state courts of general jurisdiction. BJS estimates that 750 prosecutors with a response rate of 90% should generate estimates with an acceptable amount of error. BJS has collected data from state court prosecutors since 1990. The data collected in this effort will be used to examine trends over time with previously collected data and provide insight into emerging issues in prosecution. In the past, NSP has collected information about the number of prosecuting attorneys, type of support staff, types of non-felony cases handled, and the number of juveniles waived to or directly filed in adult criminal courts. The NSP19 requires the development of an appropriate nationally representative sampling plan.

This program aims to design a survey instrument and administer it to a sample of prosecutor offices to generate statistically sound, nationally representative statistics that describe the work of prosecutors in the United States. The specific objectives are to—
1) develop a draft questionnaire that addresses current issues in prosecution and items to track trends over time, consistent with prior collections
2) develop a marketing and contact strategy to encourage high response rates
3) convene an expert panel to review the questionnaire and marketing strategy and address any deficiencies
4) cognitively test the instrument
5) verify and update the sampling frame developed for the 2007 NSP census
6) work with BJS to develop a sampling plan that includes prosecutor office stratification consistent with past NSP efforts, along with a plan for nonresponse bias assessment, imputation, and weighting to yield national estimates of prosecutor office attributes and activities
7) conduct the data collection and nonresponse follow-up
8) implement a suitable and approved data assessment and cleaning program
9) deliver final data sets to BJS
10) provide analytic support for the BJS report

CA/NCF