A group of criminologists and criminal justice experts are asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray to release data they say is missing from the FBI’s 2016 Crime in the United States report.
The letter, signed by Peter Wood of the Crime and Justice Research Alliance, calls on the Department of Justice and FBI to “immediately revise” the report to fill in the gaps.
CJRA recently sent a letter to @jeffsessions, @FBI Director Wray and the Congressional oversight and appropriations leadership, urging @TheJusticeDept and FBI to release the missing data tables from the recently-released 2016 Uniform Crime Reporting annual report: pic.twitter.com/C616xH5Vc1
— CJRAlliance (@cjralliance) November 30, 2017
The reduction from 81 data tables in 2015 to 29 table in 2016 with “insufficient explanation […] has significant implications for the justice research community,” the letter said.
Missing data — which FiveThirtyEight first reported on in October — includes trends in family and intimate partner violence, gang homicides, specific narcotic arrests and clearance rates.
“Given this administration’s public statements about addressing violent crime, victims’ rights, the opioid epidemic and terrorism, it is unfortunate that the 2016 report removes key data about these topic areas,” the letter said.
Leaders of the House and Senate Oversight and Appropriations committees were also sent the letters, the Crime and Justice Research Alliance said.
