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COURT DOCKET DATA: A RESEARCH TREASURE TROVE April 11, 2013

COURT DOCKET DATA: A RESEARCH TREASURE TROVE April 11, 2013. Max Schlueter, Ph.D. Vermont Center for Justice Research. PREVIEW What is court docket data? How can you use court docket data? Strategies for obtaining court docket data Important data fields to request

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COURT DOCKET DATA: A RESEARCH TREASURE TROVE April 11, 2013

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  1. COURT DOCKET DATA: A RESEARCH TREASURE TROVEApril 11, 2013 Max Schlueter, Ph.D. Vermont Center for Justice Research

  2. PREVIEW • What is court docket data? • How can you use court docket data? • Strategies for obtaining court docket data • Important data fields to request • A system for data transfer and transformation

  3. What Is Court Docket Data? • Records that the courts use to document • Defendants • Charges • Dispositions • Sentences • All activity related to a case

  4. How Can You Use Court Docket Data • “What’s the going rate for XXXX? • Sentencing Practices • Policy & Planning • Throughput Analysis • Time Series Analysis • Program Evaluation • Disproportional Minority Contact

  5. What’s The Going Rate?

  6. Sentencing Practices: Race & Sentencing

  7. Sentencing Practices: Legislative Hearings

  8. Policy Analysis: Juvenile Justice Interactive Graphic Juvenile Crime Charge Dispositions

  9. Throughput Analysis: DUI

  10. Time to Disposition 40 35 34 30 25 24 Number of Cases 20 17 15 16 15 15 14 10 10 9 9 8 8 5 3 3 0 3 0 1 0 <1 1-3 4-6 7-9 10-12 13-26 27-52 53- 104 >104 Weeks IDVD District Court Figure 2 Time Series Analysis

  11. Time Series Analysis

  12. Program Evaluation: SIU

  13. Disproportionate Minority Contact

  14. Strategies For Obtaining Court Docket Data • Do some homework: • The details of Court organization / authority • Court MIS • Is court docket data subject to the Public Record Law • It may be available, but is it free? • How much work is involved for the court? • The “Trusted Partner” Concept • Bang for the buck: One abstract, many users

  15. Strategies For Obtaining Court Docket Data • Know: • What data you want • In what format you want it • How often you want it • How will you protect it • Be flexible • Be willing to start small • Be prepared to sign an MOU • Build a strong relationship with the Court’s IT staff

  16. Important Data Fields to Request • Docket #s • Agency case numbers • Defendant Data • Personal identifiers: Name, DOB, Court ID#, SID# • Descriptive Demographics: Race, Gender, Zip Code • Dates • Charges

  17. Important Data Fields to Request • Disposition Data: • Diversion, conviction, not guilty, dismissed by prosecuting attorney, dismissed by court • Sentencing Data • Incarceration, splits, probation, fines, • Minimum & Maximum Sentences

  18. A System for Data Transfer & Transformation • Court extracts data • Court loads the data on their FTP Site • SAC downloads the data to staging database • SAC imports data into SPSS • SAC conducts data quality checks • SAC adds value to the data by creating new variables and recoding data • SAC merges new file to production database

  19. CONTACT INFORMATION Max Schlueter Vermont Center for Justice Research mschlueter@vcjr.org 802-485-4250 www.vcjr.org

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