Bureau of Justice Statistics


The United States Bureau of Justice Statistics is a federal government agency belonging to the U.S. Department of Justice and a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System. Established on 27 December 1979, the bureau collects, analyzes and publishes data relating to crime in the United States. The agency publishes data regarding statistics gathered from the roughly fifty-thousand agencies that comprise the U.S. justice system on its Web site.
BJS, along with the National Institute of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office for Victims of Crime, and other program offices, comprise the Office of Justice Programs branch of the Department of Justice.

BJS Directors

In 2005, the Bush administration replaced BJS director Lawrence Greenfeld after he refused to remove certain racial statistics from a report, despite having published similar statistics in 2001. The following two references provide analysis and initial reporting, respectively.
More recently, Jeffrey Sedgwick, Michael Sinclair, John Jay Professor James P. Lynch, and former Deputy Director William Sabol have served as Directors.
Until 2012 the position of the BJS Director required a Senate approval, but since 2012 the post only requires the President's appointment. The current BJS Director, appointed by Donald Trump, is Jeffrey H. Anderson.