These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed. This project had three goals. One, to provide a more detailed description of injury evidence and biological evidence in sexual assault cases, including their timing relative to arrests. A second goal was to examine the relationship of forensic evidence to arrests. A third goal was to examine injury evidence and biological evidence in certain types of cases in which it may have had greater impact. To achieve these goals, the researchers created analysis data files that merged data from the Massachusetts Provided Sexual Crime Report, forensic evidence data from the two crime laboratories serving the state and data on arrests and criminal charges from 140 different police agencies.

In undertaking this data collection, the principal investigators sought to determine (1) whether police enforcement against drug crimes, specifically heroin crimes, had any influence on the rates of nondrug crimes, and (2) what effect intensive law enforcement programs against drug dealers had on residents where those programs were operating. To achieve these objectives, data on crime rates for seven successive years were collected from police records of 30 cities in Massachusetts. Data were collected for the following offenses: murder, rape, robbery, assault, larceny, and automobile theft. The investigators also interviewed a sample of residents from 3 of those 30 cities. Residents were queried about their opinions of the most serious problem facing people today, their degree of concern about being victims of crime, and their opinions of the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies in handling drug problems.

Physical locations were verified from the websites of the Massachusetts Department of Correction (MADOC), Massachusetts Sheriffs' Association (MSA), Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and individual facilities, and verbal communication with many of the facilities. Ancillary support facilities - treatment centers, process divisions, resource centers, etc. - are not included because there were no inmates living at these facilities.This layer was modified from its previous version, which was developed by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) GIS Program based on database information provided by the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services (DCJIS) (the state agency responsible for maintaining the Commonwealth's criminal justice information system), part of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS). The EOPSS is also the parent agency of the MADOC, which operates the Commonwealth's state prison system.More details...Feature service also available.

The Boston Reentry Study (BRS) was a mixed-methods, longitudinal study of 122 men and women released from Massachusetts state prisons to the Boston area, that focused on the transition into the community during participants' first year after prison release. The original data collection combined a panel survey, qualitative interviews, interviews with family members, and administrative records on criminal history. The BRS examined the complexity of integration after incarceration drawing from participants' life histories, including childhood experiences, to understand how individual biographies shape the transition into the community. This collection includes responses to 5 survey waves: (1) baseline, about one week before release from prison, (2) 1 week after prison release, (3) 2 months after prison release, (4) 6 months after prison release, and (5) 12 months after prison release. The survey collected information on housing, employment, income, health, family relationships, and criminal justice system contact.

This study sought to examine (1) the occurrence of revictimization, (2) the impact of case processing in Quincy District Court (QDC) on the disclosure of revictimization, and (3) victim satisfaction with various components of the criminal justice system. This study was undertaken as part of a secondary analysis of data originally collected for a National Institute of Justice (NIJ) sponsored evaluation of a "model" domestic violence program located in Quincy, Massachusetts (RESPONSE TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN THE QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS, DISTRICT COURT, 1995-1997 [ICPSR 3076]). Administrative records data were collected from the Quincy District Court's Department of Probation, two batterer treatment programs servicing offenders, and police incident reports, as well as survey data administered to victims. Included are criminal history data, records of civil restraining orders, probation department data on prosecutorial charges, case disposition and risk assessment information, data on offender treatment program participation, police incident reports, and self-report victim survey data. These data were collected with three primary goals: (1) to obtain the victim's point of view about what she wanted from the criminal justice system, and how the criminal justice system responded to the domestic violence incident in which she was involved, (2) to get details about the study incidents and the context of the victim-offender relationship that are not typically available in official statistics, and (3) to hear directly from victims about the defendant's reoffending behavior.

The Quincy, Massachusetts, District Court initiated an aggressive, pro-intervention strategy for dealing with domestic violence cases in 1986. This study was funded to examine the workings of this court and its impact on the lives of victims. The four main goals of the research were: (1) to describe the workings of the primary components of this model jurisdiction in its response to domestic violence, specifically (a) what the police actually did when called to a domestic violence incident, (b) decisions made by the prosecutor's office and the court in their handling of these incidents, (c) how many victims talked to a victim advocate, and (d) how many offenders received batterer treatment and/or were incarcerated, (2) to describe the types of incidents, victims, and offenders seen in a full enforcement jurisdiction to determine if the types of cases coming to attention in such a setting looked similar to cases reported in studies from other jurisdictions, (3) to interview victims to hear directly about their experiences with a model court, and (4) to examine how well this model jurisdiction worked in preventing revictimization. Data used in this study were based on domestic violence cases that resulted in an arrest and arraignment before the Quincy District Court (QDC) during a seven-month study period. Six types of data were collected for this study: (1) The offender's criminal history prior to the study and for one year subsequent to the study incident were provided by the QDC's Department of Probation from the Massachusetts Criminal Records System Board. (2) Civil restraining order data were provided by the Department of Probation from a statewide registry of civil restraining orders. (3) Data on prosecutorial charges for up to three domestic violence-related charges were provided by the Department of Probation. (4) Data on defendants who attended batterer treatment programs were provided by directors of two such programs that served the QDC. (5) Police incident reports from the seven departments served by the QDC were used to measure the officer's perspective and actions taken relating to each incident, what the call for service involved, characteristics of the incident, socio-demographics of the participants, their narrative descriptions of the incident, and their stated response. (6) Interviews with victims were conducted one year after the occurrence of the study incident. Variables from administrative records include date and location of incident, number of suspects, age and race of victims and offenders, use of weapons, injuries, witnesses, whether there was an existing restraining order and its characteristics, charges filed by police, number and gender of police officers responding to the incident, victim's state at the time of the incident, offender's criminal history, and whether the offender participated in batterer treatment. The victim survey collected data on the victim's education and employment status, current living arrangement, relationship with offender, how the victim responded to the incident, how afraid the victim was, victim's opinions of police and the prosecutor, victim's sense of control, satisfaction with the court, victim's past violent relationships and child sexual abuse, victim's opinions on what the criminal justice system could do to stop abuse, and whether the victim obtained a restraining order.

This study was an outcome evaluation of the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) program at the Barnstable House of Corrections in Massachusetts. The study is based on the 188 inmates referred to the RSAT program at Barnstable between January 1, 1999, and June 6, 2001. Data on participants' criminal histories were gathered from the Criminal History Systems Board through March 2002. Data on offender age, entry, and discharge dates were supplied by the Barnstable County House of Corrections. Data from offender scores on psychological inventories and offender outcomes in the RSAT program were supplied by AdCare Criminal Justice Services.

This data collection is the result of a project established to study the development, implementation, and use of statewide sentencing guidelines and to report the perceptions of criminal justice system personnel and inmates regarding those guidelines. Funded by the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, the project was carried out by the Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice from October 1978 to June 1981. Additional data produced by this project are contained in two other studies held by ICPSR: MASSACHUSETTS STATEWIDE STATEWIDE CRIMINAL JUSTICE GUIDELINES EVALUATION, 1979: SENTENCTING DATA (ICPSR 7909) and NEW JERSEY STATEWIDE CRIMINAL JUSTICE GUIDELINES EVALUATION, 1980: INMATE SURVEY DATA (ICPSR 7911). The data in this study is contained in two files. It consists of interviews to determine the opinions of inmates about the relative seriousness of offenses, severity of punishments, appropriateness of penalties for various kinds of crimes, and the use of sentencing guidelines to structure judicial sentencing decisions. Part 1, Inmate Background Data, contains socioeconomic, residential, and current and prior criminal history information in a random sample of 226 Rahway, New Jersey, State Prison inmates. Background information was collected for all of the inmates selected to participate in the 1979 New Jersey inmate survey. However, not all of those inmates selected agreed to be interviewed when the actual survey was conducted. Therefore, Part 1 includes information on survey respondents and nonrespondents. Part 2, Inmate Survey Data, contains information on 146 inmates. Frequency distributions and the survey instrument are included in the documentation.

Collection of these data was undertaken in order to develop offender classification criteria that could be used to identify career criminals for priority prosecution. In addition to the crime records obtained from official sources and defendants' self- reports, information about prosecutors' discretionary judgments on sampled cases was obtained from interviews of prosecutors and case review forms completed by attorneys. Respondent and nonrespondent files, taken from official court records, contain information on current and past records of offenses committed, arrests, dispositions, sentences, parole and probation histories, substance abuse records, juvenile court appearances, criminal justice practitioners' assessments, and demographic characteristics. The prosecutor interview files contain variables relating to prosecutors' opinions on the seriousness of the defendant's case, subjective criteria used to decide suitability for prosecution, and case status at intake stage. Information obtained from prosecutors' case review forms include defendants' prior records and situational variables related to the charged offenses. The self-report files contain data on the defendants' employment histories, substance abuse and criminal records, sentence and confinement histories, and basic socioeconomic characteristics.

These data were collected to evaluate the Elder Protection Project in Massachusetts, sponsored by the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office and funded by the Massachusetts Committee on Criminal Justice. The mission of the project was to train police officers to be aware of the changing demographics of the elderly population in Massachusetts and to communicate effectively and sensitively with senior adults so that officers could effectively intervene, report, and investigate instances of elder victimization, neglect, and financial exploitation. These data examine the quality of instruction given at the advanced training sessions conducted between September 1993 and May 1994 and offered in all regions of the state in coordination with local protective service agencies. Variables include the respondent's agency and job title, type of elder abuse programs offered by the agency, the respondent's estimate of the percentage of actual elder abuse reported in his/her area, and the respondent's opinion on the greatest obstacles to having elder abuse reported. Respondents rated their knowledge of elder abuse reporting laws, procedures for responding to elder abuse incidents, unique aspects of communicating with elderly people, and formal training on recognizing signs of elder abuse. Respondents that completed the two-day advanced law enforcement elder abuse training program rated the quality of the training and were also asked about issues related to elder abuse not covered in the training, names of new programs in the department or agency initiated as a result of the training, aspects of the training most useful and least useful, and suggestions regarding how the training program could be improved.

Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog | Published by Massachusetts Criminal Defense Attorney — Michael DelSignore

For this study, convenience store robbery victims and offenders in five states (Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, and South Carolina) were interviewed. Robbery victims were identified by canvassing convenience stores in high-crime areas, while a sample of unrelated offenders was obtained from state prison rolls. The aims of the survey were to address questions of injury, to examine store characteristics that might influence the rate of robbery and injury, to compare how both victims and offenders perceived the robbery event (including their assessment of what could be done to prevent convenience store robberies in the future), and to identify ways in which the number of convenience store robberies might be reduced. Variables unique to Part 1, the Victim Data file, provide information on how the victim was injured, whether hospitalization was required for the injury, if the victim used any type of self-protection, and whether the victim had been trained to handle a robbery. Part 2, the Offender Data file, presents variables describing offenders' history of prior convenience store robberies, whether there had been an accomplice, motive for robbing the store, and whether various factors mattered in choosing the store to rob (e.g., cashier location, exit locations, lighting conditions, parking lot size, the number of clerks working, weather conditions, the time of day, and the number of customers in the store). Found in both files are variables detailing whether a victim injury occurred, use of a weapon, how each participant behaved, perceptions of why the store was targeted, what could have been done to prevent the robbery, and ratings by the researchers on the completeness, honesty, and cooperativeness of each participant during the interview. Demographic variables found in both the victim and offender files include age, gender, race, and ethnicity.

In 2023, the District of Columbia had the highest reported violent crime rate in the United States, with 1,150.9 violent crimes per 100,000 of the population. Maine had the lowest reported violent crime rate, with 102.5 offenses per 100,000 of the population. Life in the District The District of Columbia has seen a fluctuating population over the past few decades. Its population decreased throughout the 1990s, when its crime rate was at its peak, but has been steadily recovering since then. While unemployment in the District has also been falling, it still has had a high poverty rate in recent years. The gentrification of certain areas within Washington, D.C. over the past few years has made the contrast between rich and poor even greater and is also pushing crime out into the Maryland and Virginia suburbs around the District. Law enforcement in the U.S. Crime in the U.S. is trending downwards compared to years past, despite Americans feeling that crime is a problem in their country. In addition, the number of full-time law enforcement officers in the U.S. has increased recently, who, in keeping with the lower rate of crime, have also made fewer arrests than in years past.

These data were gathered to test a model of the socioeconomic and demographic determinants of the crime of arson. Datasets for this analysis were developed by the principal investigator from records of the Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System and from population and housing data from the 1980 Census of Massachusetts. The three identically-structured data files include variables such as population size, fire incident reports, employment, income, family structure, housing type, housing quality, housing occupancy, housing availability, race, and age.

The purpose of the study was to explore the impact of interventions by Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners/Sexual Assault Response Teams (SANE/SART) on the judicial process. The goal was to test the efficacy of SANE/SART programs as a tool in the criminal justice system. The American Prosecutors Research Institute and Boston College tested the hypotheses that SANE/SART exams increase arrest and prosecution rates. The researchers collected case information from SANE/SART, police, and prosecution files in three jurisdictions: Monmouth County (Freehold), New Jersey, Sedgwick County (Wichita), Kansas, and Suffolk County (Boston), Massachusetts. At each study site, the project team randomly selected up to 125 sexual assault cases in which there was a SANE or SART intervention and 125 cases in which there was no SANE/SART intervention from cases that were opened and closed between 1997 and 2001. Comparisons were sought between SANE/SART cases (both SANE only and SANE/SART combined) and non-SANE/SART cases to determine if the intervention predicted the likelihood of certain criminal justice system outcomes. These outcomes included identification/arrest of a suspect, the filing of charges, case disposition, type of penalty, and length of sentence. In addition, researchers collected information on a number of other variables that could impact or mitigate the effect of SANE/SART interventions and case outcomes. The researchers abstracted information from case files maintained by SANE programs, police incident/arrest reports, and prosecution files during intensive five-day site visits. Three standardized records abstraction forms were developed to collect data: (1) the incident form was designed to collect data from police reports and the prosecution files about the actual sexual assault, (2) the case abstraction form was designed to collect prosecution data and case outcome data from the prosecutors' case files, and (3) the SANE/SART data collection form collected information from the SANE/SART files about the SANE/SART intervention. Specific information regarding the evidence collected during the victim's exam, nature of the assault, evidence/forensic kits collected, victim's demeanor, weapon(s) used, number of assailants, and the victim/offender relationship were collected.

Commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) is an increasingly urgent problem for criminal justice systems in the United States. Despite the staggering individual and societal consequences of CSE, evidence-based prevention and intervention programs are profoundly lacking. This study used a quasi-experimental, mixed methods, longitudinal follow-up design to evaluate a service provision program for CSE survivors or those identified as high-risk for CSE, My Life My Choice (MLMC). Researchers followed youth who received MLMC services from baseline to multiple follow-up points to see how they progressed over time in terms of building up resistance to being sexually exploited. Youth received one of two different type of MLMC services. One group (Source 1) received one-on-one survivor mentoring, otherwise known as "tertiary prevention." Participants in this program are paired with mentors who have been trained and free from CSE for at least five years. Mentors provide long-term and consistent emotional support to exploited youth or those MLMC believes are at high-risk for exploitation. The Source 1 youth were recruited only from Massachusetts. They participated in quantitative and qualitative data collection at baseline, six months post-baseline, and 12 months post-baseline. A second group (Source 2) received 3-10 sessions of a psychoeducational prevention group following the MLMC curriculum, otherwise known as "secondary prevention." These groups are led by trained facilitators and are intended for youth at high-risk for exploitation. Participants are taught about sexual exploitation, healthy relationships, sexual health, and how to find help. Source 2 youth received MLMC services in Massachusetts, Florida, New Jersey, or Connecticut. They participated in quantitative data collection at baseline, time of the last group session, and six months post-baseline. Measured outcomes included instances of sexual exploitation in the past six months, frequency and type of substance use, partner abuse victimization, and housing stability. Researchers hypothesized that, among the secondary prevention group, youth who chose to interact with MLMC staff more often (in terms of attending educational sessions) would score higher on desired outcomes than those frequently absent or who do not interact with staff as often. Among the tertiary prevention group, researchers hypothesized that those who participated would demonstrate improved outcomes from baseline to six months and baseline to 12 months.

In recent years, gun violence in the United States has become an alarmingly common occurrence. From 2016, there has been over ****** homicides by firearm in the U.S. each year and firearms have been found to make up the majority of murder weapons in the country by far, demonstrating increasing rates of gun violence occurring throughout the nation. As of 2025, Mississippi was the state with the highest gun violence rate per 100,000 residents in the United States, at **** percent, followed by Louisiana, at **** percent. In comparison, Massachusetts had a gun violence rate of *** percent, the lowest out of all the states. The importance of gun laws Gun laws in the United States vary from state to state, which has been found to affect the differing rates of gun violence throughout the country. Fewer people die by gun violence in states where gun safety laws have been passed, while gun violence rates remain high in states where gun usage is easily permitted and even encouraged. In addition, some states suffer from high rates of gun violence despite having strong gun safety laws due to gun trafficking, as traffickers can distribute firearms illegally past state lines. The right to bear arms Despite evidence from other countries demonstrating that strict gun control measures reduce rates of gun violence, the United States has remained reluctant to enact gun control laws. This can largely be attributed to the Second Amendment of the Constitution, which states that citizens have the right to bear arms. Consequently, gun control has become a highly partisan issue in the U.S., with ** percent of Democrats believing that it was more important to limit gun ownership while ** percent of Republicans felt that it was more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns.

This study sought to inform various issues related to the extent of victims' adverse psychological and behavioral reactions to aggravated assault differentiated by the offenders' bias or non-bias motives. The goals of the research included (1) identifying the individual and situational factors related to bias- and non-bias-motivated aggravated assault, (2) determining the comparative severity and duration of psychological after-effects attributed to the victimization experience, and (3) measuring the comparative extent of behavioral avoidance strategies of victims. Data were collected on all 560 cases from the Boston Police Department's Community Disorders Unit from 1992 to 1997 that involved victim of a bias-motivated aggravated assault. In addition, data were collected on a 10-percent stratified random sample of victims of non-bias assaults within the city of Boston from 1993 to 1997, resulting in another 544 cases. For each of the cases, information was collected from each police incident report. Additionally, the researchers attempted to contact each victim in the sample to participate in a survey about their victimization experiences. The victim questionnaires included questions in five general categories: (1) incident information, (2) police response, (3) prosecutor response, (4) personal impact of the crime, and (5) respondent's personal characteristics. Criminal history variables were also collected regarding the number and type of adult and juvenile arrest charges against offenders and victims, as well as dispositions and arraignment dates.

This dataset is part of a larger data collection effort conducted by the principal investigator to study crime, justice, and penal reform in Massachusetts and South Carolina from 1760 to 1880. Data are presented in this file on over 600 slave trials in two counties of ante-bellum South Carolina from 1818 to 1861. Included are variables documenting the accused crime, verdict, punishment, and item stolen (if applicable), as well as the defendant's name, sex, status, owner, and date of the trial.