Book Description

This technical reference work contains a large selection of proposed standard terms and definitions and model data structures, continuing the effort to develop a uniform national terminology for collecting and exchanging justice information and statistics. It incorporates material from and supersedes the first edition. It is primarily intended for the use of justice data collectors, processors, analysts, and interpreters, particularly those who are concerned with the communication of justice information between the States and at the national level. The recommended terminology is intended to promote the unambiguous description and communication of basic facts concerning criminal and juvenile justice processes, agencies, alleged and adjudicated offenders, and offenses. Model data structures describe standardizable units and events in selected subject areas and explicate category and term relationships. Each entry in the dictionary provides either recommended data system usages, or a description of actual usages in the justice community, or both. A discussion of the role of terminology in data system development and statistics and of problems in the development and adoption of an unambiguous and consistent technical vocabulary is included.