In response to States' questions on using offender processing statistics, this report defines each of the major structures for representing offender processing statistics, illustrates their use and display, and describes data bases supporting the structures. The major data source was a 1980 survey of States' use of offender-based transaction statistics (OBTS) systems.
The States were asked to identify concerns related to criminal offender processing. The responses were grouped into six major classes of analysis or structural frameworks for consideration. The analytic frameworks include offender processing flows and stocks (offender characteristics and the number of offenders in the system or waiting to be processed); elapsed time between events in processing and impact of processing stocks; corrections intake, length of sentence and of stay and their impact on corrections populations; recidivism rates; and projections of volume and manner of criminal justice processing. A discussion of each major structure contains a conceptual definition and an illustration of the frameworks' use and display based primarily on individual State work in the area. The report also identifies issues in data collection, extraction, and aggregation related to the framework and discusses displays of data files and output reports as well as presenting exhibits of some displays and outputs. Alternative sources of data to support the framework are listed, such as State and agency management information systems, Uniform Crime Reports, and computerized criminal history systems. (Author summary modified)