When data are misleading

This year not only marks my 40th birthday, but it also marks the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, celebrated this past Monday, officially becoming a national holiday and the 55th year since his assassination.  Somehow, 55 years later, in many communities, the thirst for equality seems just as unquenched as when King led the fight for equality himself.



Today there are many individuals who have joined the fight in whatever capacity they can.  I have chosen research and advocacy.  The criminal justice system has always been a research area of interest for me.  Utilizing recently updated Bureau of Justice Statistics data, I have begun this year analyzing the current trends within the criminal justice system at the federal level for women by race.



There are three parts to the data sets that I aim to utilize, beginning with federal arrest and booking statistics.  The first study analyzes the trend of arrests and bookings for females at the federal level from 2000 to 2021.  As Graph 1 below shows, there appears to be an upward trend of arrests and bookings for women during this period.



Chart 1: Total Female Arrests 2000 – 2021



Source: Calculations by the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race. Data Source: U.S. Marshals Service – USMS Prisoner Tracking System (PTS)



Check out the full report to see these data disaggregated by race and why this chart may be misleading.

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