Data were obtained from the Offender-Based Transaction Statistics program for California, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. All data are presented in the aggregate for the six States combined. These States reported arrests for 174,767 crimes that involved forgery or fraud. For 1983-88, of every 100 arrests for forgery or fraud-related crimes, 89 were prosecuted, 67 were convicted of a felony or misdemeanor, and 41 were incarcerated in a State prison or local jail. Of the 156,150 prosecutions, 4 in 20 resulted in a court dismissal, and 15 in 20 yielded convictions. Another 1 in 20 ended in acquittal or other dispositions that did not involve a conviction. Twenty-eight percent of those convicted were sentenced to probation as the most severe penalty. Another 4 percent received a monetary sanction, and 4 percent resulted in a deferred or suspended sentence. For a felony forgery or fraud-related offense, the median time between an arrest and a disposition was 3 months. The majority of offenders were white, male, and under age 28; however, women and persons aged 40 or older were more likely to be arrested for a forgery or fraud-related crime than for other types of property crimes. 10 tables
Forgery and Fraud-Related Offenses in Six States, 1983-88
NCJ Number
132445
Date Published
January 1992
Annotation
Data and information on forgery and fraud-related crime cover the number of offenses, aspects of case processing, and offender characteristics for six States for the period 1983-88.
Abstract
Date Published: January 1, 1992