BJS home page

Expenditure & employment facts at a glance

Expenditure and Employment Statistics

On this page:

Summary findings

 
Local governments spend more on criminal justice than State or Federal governments.

Direct expenditure by level of government, 1982-2001

Direct expenditures by criminal justice function, 1982-2001

• In fiscal 2001 Federal, State, and local governments spent over $167 billion for police protection, corrections and judicial and legal activities, a 7% increase over 2000. Per capita expenditure across the three government types and criminal justice functions was approximately $600.
  
  
• In fiscal 2001 State and local governments spent a combined 85% of all direct justice dollars; the Federal Government spent the rest.
  
  
• Federal government spend more than $25 billion on direct expenditures for criminal and civil justice in fiscal year 2001. State governments spend nearly $59 billion and local governments spend over $83 billion.
  
  

To the top

Publications

This list is in order of the most recent publication first. Additional titles are listed on other topical pages and a comprehensive list is contained on the BJS publications page. To see a full abstract of a publication with links to electronic versions of the publication, click on the title below.

Local Law Enforcement Block Grant Program, 1996-2004, 09/04. Outlines how the formulas are calculated under the LLEBG Program to make funds available to local governments for reducing crime and improving public safety. NCJ 203096

State Prison Expenditures, 2001, 06/04. Presents comparative data on the cost of operating the Nation's State prisons. The study is based on institutional corrections elements of the Fiscal 2001 Survey of Government Finances which State budget officers reported to the U.S. Census Bureau. NCJ 202949

State Prison Expenditures, 1996, 8/99. NCJ 172211

Justice Expenditure and Employment in the U.S. 2001, 05/04. Provides selected data from the Census Bureau's Annual General Finance and Employment Surveys. Data presented include police protection, judicial and legal services, and corrections expenditure and employment for Federal, State, and local governments in 2001 and national trend data for 1982 to 2001. NCJ 202792

Justice Expenditure and Employment in the U.S. 1999, 02/02. NCJ 191746

Justice Expenditure and Employment in the U.S. 1995, 11/99. NCJ 178235

Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts series, Presents data from the Census Bureau's Annual Government Finance Survey and Annual Survey of Public Employment. This series includes national and State-by-State estimates of government expenditures and employment for the following justice categories: police protection, all judicial (including prosecution, courts, and public defense), and corrections. Federal data for the same categories are also included, as are data for the very largest local governments (counties with populations of 500,000 or more and cities with populations of 300,000 or more)

In electronic formats only:

2001, 12/03. NCJ 202792
2000, 12/03. NCJ 194802
1999, 12/01. NCJ 194802
1998, 10/01. NCJ 190641
1997, 11/00. NCJ 185672
1996, 03/00. NCJ 180883
1995, 11/99. NCJ 175706
1994, 08/99. NCJ 175706
1993, 08/99. NCJ 163068

Justice Expenditure and Employment in the U.S. 2001, 04/04. Provides selected data from the Census Bureau's Annual General Finance and Employment Surveys. Data presented include police protection, judicial and legal services, and corrections expenditure and employment for Federal, State, and local governments in 2001 and national trend data for 1982 to 2001. NCJ 202792

Justice Expenditure and Employment in the U.S. 1999, 02/02. NCJ 191746

Justice Expenditure and Employment in the U.S. 1995, 11/99. NCJ 178235

Justice Variable Passthrough Data, 1997, 11/01. Presents the variable passthrough (VPT) data used to calculate the amounts States distribute to their local governments under the Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Programs. NCJ 190359

Indigent Defense Services in Large Counties, 1999, 11/00. Describes the methods by which criminal indigent defense is delivered in the Nation's 100 most populous counties. NCJ 184932

To the top

Selected statistics

• Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts (20 spreadsheets and explanatory text in a zip archive)
       1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999
       2000 | 2001
  
  
• Trends in Justice Expenditure and Employment (12 spreadsheets and explanatory text in a zip archive.) Individual versions of these spreadsheets may be downloaded from the Crime & Justice Electronic Data Abstracts.

To the top

BJS Expenditure and Employment Data Collections

Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts series
Since 1980, these data have been extracted from the Census Bureau's Annual Government Finance Survey and Annual Survey of Public Employment. This series includes national and State-by-State estimates of government expenditures and employment for the following justice categories: police protection, all judicial (including prosecution, courts, and public defense), and corrections. Federal data for the same categories are also included, as are data for the very largest local governments (counties with populations of 500,000 or more and cities with populations of 300,000 or more). The unit of analysis in the CJEE is the government. For example, the corrections employment reported for any particular State represents the total of all correctional personnel employed by that State regardless of which prison, probation office, or other corrections agency employ them.
Annually since 1980

Codebook and datasets

Justice Assistance Data Survey (formerly Justice Expenditure and Employment Survey)
This direct survey of governments collects detailed justice expenditure data. These data are the basis for calculating variable passthrough estimates needed to distribute the formula funds of the Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Program administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. Less detailed annual expenditure and employment data are available in the Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts series which produce similar but not statistically comparable data. Comparability issues are described in Appendix 2 of the 1992 Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts report and in a text file provided with the zip archive for the 1993-99 and trends spreadsheets. Prior to 1997, this survey was called the Justice Expenditure and Employment Survey, and collected detailed employment data in addition to expenditure data.
1971-79, 1985, 1988, 1990, and 1997

Codebooks and Datasets

Expenditure and employment data from other BJS sources
Other BJS series collect agency-based employment and expenditure data that allow the development of workload measures, ratios of employees to clients, and ratios of dollars per service delivered. These include --

• Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics
• Prosecutors in State Courts
• various court statistics series
• the Census of Local Jails
• the Census of State and Federal Correctional Facilities

Because of collection methods, units of analysis, and data collection purposes the estimates produced from these sources may differ from those produced by the CJEE.

To the top

Related Sites

• U.S. Census Bureau Governments Statistics
  
• 

Bureau of Justice Statistics
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
Send comments to askbjs@ojp.usdoj.gov

OJP Freedom of Information Act page
Privacy Policy
Page last revised on September 7, 2004