These include a wide range of data sources, both domestic and international, and covering a range of subject areas. Many of the datasets can be downloaded into spreadsheets, though some are only available as searchable datasets.
Note: Go to the Statistical Analysis Centers Page for sources of state-level criminal justice data.
Center for Homeland Defense and Security K-12 School Shooting Database
https://www.chds.us/ssdb/
From the website: The K-12 school shooting database documents each and every instance a gun is brandished, is fired, or a bullet hits school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims, time of day, or day of week.
China Drug, Crime and Detention Database
https://www.lse.ac.uk/united-states/international-drug-policy/IDPU-China-drug-database
Housed in the London School of Economics, “The China Drug, Crime and Detention Database Project is the first open access quantitative database focused on Chinese government drug policy and the country’s justice system. It is an open access resource for researchers, advocates, journalists and organizations engaged in the study of drug policy, criminal justice, policing and detention in China. Spanning 500+ categories and drawing on data from more than 200 publicly available sources, the database presents quantitative data on a range of topics, including: illicit drug use; drug harm reduction programs; criminal and administrative offenses; criminal and extrajudicial detention; judicial sentencing; and policing.”
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
https://trade.cites.org/
This searchable database was developed and is managed by the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). The UN draws on this data in issuing its report “The World Wildlife Seizures (World WISE) database: https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and- analysis/wildlife/WLC16_Chapter_2.pdf
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=245
This annual national survey of victimization is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau of the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Each year approximately interviews are conducted with approximately 160,000 unique individuals in about 95,000 households. The survey does not include military personnel, those in prisons or hospitals, or the homeless.
National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund
Office Down Memorial Page
Both sites keep a continuously updated list of officers who die in the line of duty. The data are not necessarily in a spreadsheet friendly form but there is a considerable amount of information and searches can be done by state and year.
National Registry of Exonerations
http://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/about.aspx
According to their website: The Registry collects, analyzes and disseminates information about all known exonerations of innocent criminal defendants in the United States, from 1989 to the present. We publish their stories and we provide accessible, searchable online statistical data about their cases. We also conduct empirical studies of the process of exoneration and of factors that lead to the underlying wrongful convictions.
National Sex Offender Public Website
This website is operated by the U.S. Department of Justice and allows for a search of sex offender registries for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. Territories, and Indian Country. Searches can be done by name or by location. The main limitation is that not all states provide geographic coordinates for addresses to the site (Illinois is one such state). Further it is not possible to download a single file with all of the cases in the U.S. Curiously, it says that Illinois data is not available by geographic coordinates, but the sex offender registry hosted by the Illinois State Police does provide addresses of offenders on a map (not, however, in a table form). https://www.isp.state.il.us/sor/
Police Shootings Databases
http://homicidecenter.org/services/resources/police-shootings/
The Center for Homicide Research has created a list of nearly 30 databases related to police shootings, with links to those databases.
Prison Policy Initiative
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/research.html
“Our mission is to empower activists, journalists, and policymakers to shape effective criminal justice policy, so we go beyond our original reports and analyses to curate a database of virtually all the empirical criminal justice research available online.”
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
https://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/
The Sourcebook does not have raw data but summarizes criminal justice data gathered by others. It’s often a good starting point because their tables list the source of their data.
The Supreme Court Database
“The Supreme Court Database is the definitive source for researchers, students, journalists, and citizens interested in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Database contains over two hundred pieces of information about each case decided by the Court between the 1791 and 2018 terms. Examples include the identity of the court whose decision the Supreme Court reviewed, the parties to the suit, the legal provisions considered in the case, and the votes of the Justices.”
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)
https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr
The FBI issues annual data about crime based on reports from law enforcement agencies across the nation. The FBI reports on crime through its National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) that is scheduled to completely replace the older less detailed system in January 1, 2021. There are also reports on Hate Crime Statistics, Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, and on the Use of Force by officers.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/international-cooperation/databases.html
This UN site links the user to a wide range of UN databases, including those on human trafficking, smuggling migrants, corruption in countries, cybercrime laws, international terrorism, money laundering, and judicial integrity.
Upsala Conflict Data Program
https://www.prio.org/Data/Armed-Conflict/
For those conducting international research, this site has a link to armed conflict data, both internal and external, from 1946 to the present. It also has links to a number of other databases on armed conflict and urban social unrest.
World Prison Brief
https://www.prisonstudies.org/
“The World Prison Brief is an online database providing free access to information on prison systems around the world. It is a unique resource, which supports evidence-based development of prison policy and practice globally.” The World Prison Brief is hosted by the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR), at Birkbeck, University of London.