RIDIR: Developing and Deploying the Criminal Justice Administrative Records System

刑事司法行政记录系统(CJARS)是一个为解决美国刑事司法系统现有数据基础设施中的空白而创建的项目。美国刑事司法系统有600万人受到惩教监督，需要数千亿美元的公共支出。学者和政策制定者一直呼吁进行强有力的科学分析，量化司法做法的益处和成本，但这一目标从根本上受到限制，包括缺乏跨机构和司法管辖区的数据整合，以及无法衡量社会和经济领域的成果。CJARS通过从美国各地的刑事司法机构收集行政数据，将事件数据统一为一种通用的国家格式，并将个人级别的记录链接起来，形成与司法系统生命历程互动的纵向历史，从而解决这些差距。与美国人口普查局合作，CJARS数据将在联邦统计研究数据中心提供，在那里刑事司法数据可以与广泛的社会经济调查和行政数据相结合，从而支持关于美国刑事司法系统的新一代创新研究。该项目涉及三个活动领域：(1)准备CJARS以现有统计系列为基准进行外部研究，并根据综合的犯罪和非犯罪微观数据进行高级验证检查；(2)对美国司法系统进行新的研究，说明CJARS平台带来的可能性的广度；以及(3)开发接入基础设施和开展外联活动，以吸引大量和多样化的用户群。这项研究包括对美国各地刑事司法互动的普遍性以及协调行政记录的方法的研究。外展活动将提高人们对数据和研究机会的认识，促进新的研究提案，并最大限度地发挥基础设施的科学价值。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Criminal Justice Administrative Records System (CJARS) is a project created to address gaps in the existing data infrastructure of the U.S. criminal justice system. The U.S. criminal justice system has six million individuals under correctional supervision and requires hundreds of billions of dollars in public expenditures. Scholars and policymakers have consistently called for robust, scientific analysis quantifying the benefits and costs of justice practices, yet this goal has been fundamentally constrained by limitations including a lack of data integration across agencies and jurisdictions as well as an inability to measure outcomes in social and economic domains. CJARS addresses these gaps by collecting administrative data from criminal justice agencies across the U.S., harmonizing event data into a common national format, and linking person-level records to form longitudinal histories of life course interactions with the justice system. In partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau, CJARS data will be made available in Federal Statistical Research Data Centers, where criminal justice data can be integrated with a wide range of socioeconomic survey and administrative data, and thus support a new generation of innovative research on the U.S. criminal justice system.This project involves three areas of activity: (1) preparation of CJARS for external research access by benchmarking it to existing statistical series and performing advanced validation checks based on integrated criminal and non-criminal microdata; (2) production of novel research on the U.S. justice system that illustrates the breadth of possibilities enabled by the CJARS platform; and (3) development of access infrastructure and launching of outreach activities to engage a large and diverse user base. The research includes studies of the prevalence of criminal justice interactions across the U.S. and the methodology of harmonizing administrative records. Outreach activities will raise awareness of data and research opportunities, facilitate new research proposals, and maximize the scientific value of the infrastructure.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.