FY 2020 Overview of Federal Criminal Cases

[Pages:32]Fiscal Year 2020

Overview of Federal Criminal Cases

United States Sentencing Commission

Published April 2021

United States Sentencing Commission

Charles R. Breyer Acting Chair Patricia K. Cushwa Ex Officio Commissioner Jonathan J. Wroblewski Ex Officio Commissioner

Kenneth P. Cohen Staff Director Glenn R. Schmitt Director, Office of Research and Data

Table of Contents

Federal Caseload at a Glance....................................... 2 Federal Offenders by Type of Crime........................... 4 Individual Offender Characteristics............................ 6 Case Disposition and Sentence Imposed.................. 8 The Most Common Crimes.........................................11

Immigration Offenses.................................... 12 Drug Offenses................................................ 13 Firearms Offenses.......................................... 18 Economic Offenses........................................ 20 Organizational Offenses..............................................21 Resentencings and Other Modifications.................22

Fiscal Year 2020

Overview of Federal Criminal Cases

By Glenn R. Schmitt, J.D., M.P.P, Director, Office of Research & Data & Amanda Russell, M.A., Research Associate

The United States Sentencing Commission1 received information on 64,659 federal criminal cases in which the offender was sentenced in fiscal year 2020.2 Among these cases, 64,565 involved an individual offender and 94 involved a corporation or other "organizational" offender. The Commission also received information on 5,859 cases in which the court resentenced the offender or otherwise modified the sentence that had been previously imposed. This publication provides an overview of these cases.

Page 1

Federal Caseload at a Glance

The number of cases reported to the Commission in fiscal year 2020 reflects the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the work of the courts. The 64,565 individual original cases reported to the Commission in fiscal year 2020 represent a decrease of 11,973 cases (15.6%) from fiscal year 2019. The number of offenders sentenced in the federal courts reached its peak in fiscal year 20113 and had declined each year afterward until reversing direction in fiscal year 2018. The number of cases in almost every crime type decreased in fiscal year 2020. The largest decrease occurred in the number of drug trafficking cases, which fell by 3,440 (17.3 %) from the year before. As a percentage, manslaughter cases decreased the most, by 48.6 percent. Among the other major crime types, immigration cases fell by 9.5 percent, firearms cases by 11.1 percent, and fraud, theft, and embezzlement cases by 24.5 percent. Only two crime types, individual rights and stalking/harassing, did not decrease in fiscal year 2020.

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The number of cases reported to the Commission in FY20 decreased 16%, reflecting at least in part the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Five judicial districts accounted for 43.8 percent of all individual offenders sentenced in fiscal year 2020. The Western District of Texas reported 13.2 percent of the total number of individual offenders sentenced, as did the Southern District of Texas. The next highest districts were the District of Arizona (7.1%), the Southern District of California

(5.4%), and the District of New Mexico (4.9%). The higher numbers of offenders in these five districts were driven largely by immigration cases, ranging from 52.2 percent of the cases in the Southern District of California to 85.0 percent of all cases in the Southern District of Texas.

100,000

86,201

Number of Federal Offenders Over Time

84,173

80,035

75,836

71,003

67,742

66,873

69,425

76,538

64,565

50,000

0 2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

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Federal Offenders by Type of Crime

For more than 25 years, four crime types have comprised the majority of federal felonies and Class A misdemeanors: drugs, immigration, firearms, and fraud, theft, or embezzlement. This trend continued in fiscal year 2020, as these crime types accounted for 86.4 percent of all cases reported to the Commission. Felony offenses were 97.0 percent of all the cases reported.

Federal Offenders by Type of Crime

Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement 7.5% Robbery 2.0%

Money Laundering 1.4%

Other 7.3%

Sexual Abuse 1.4%

Child Pornography 1.6%

Firearms 11.7%

Immigration 41.1%

Drugs 26.1%

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