Misdemeanor Measurement

Misdemeanor arrests and convictions are the most common form of contact with the U.S. criminal legal system, yet their long-term impacts are routinely overlooked in research and policy debates that focus primarily on felony convictions. Although legally classified as low-level offenses, misdemeanor convictions can create lasting criminal records that restrict access to employment, housing, education, and professional licensing. Because misdemeanors account for more than three-quarters of all criminal cases filed annually, failing to measure them obscures the true scale of criminalization and underestimates the population that stands to benefit from record-clearing reforms. The Clean Slate Initiative (CSI) has developed a unique data model to estimate the prevalence of criminal records, including an innovative methodology for quantifying misdemeanor convictions using FBI crime and arrest data. However, the FBI’s 2021 transition from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) System to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) requires a rigorous methodological update. This project will integrate NIBRS into CSI’s model while accounting for under-reporting and missing data, ensuring accurate estimates of misdemeanor records. Strengthening misdemeanor measurement is critical to CSI’s mission, as Clean Slate policies most often seal misdemeanor convictions and rely on precise estimates to demonstrate their reach, equity impacts, and life-changing potential. Students that partake in this project will gain experience learning about the criminal justice system, the national standard for crime reporting, manipulating and cleaning relational datasets, and modeling techniques to account for missing data.