Library Research Guides: SOC 318: Punishment: Data and Statistics

Government Resources

Bureau of Justice Statistics
To collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government. These data are critical to federal, state, and local policymakers in combating crime and ensuring that justice is both efficient and evenhanded.
Bureau of Prisons Statistics
Official data and statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
US Sentencing Commission
Data files from the US Sentencing Commission on federal sentencing practices. Files include data on individual offenders, organizational offenders, special collections, and special reports.
American Community Survey
Find statistics on education, income and benefits, health insurance, and more.
Data.census.gov
The newest website from the U.S. Census Bureau containing demographic and socioeconomic data.
Data.gov
The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.
NCES-National Center for Education Statistics
This is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations.
Statistical Abstract of the U.S.
The Statistical Abstract of the United States, published from 1878 to 2011, is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States.

Polling Data

Roper iPOLL This link opens in a new window
Searchable collection of 500,000 questions and answers from surveys collected by the major polling firms in the U.S. since 1935, with downloadable datasets.
Polling the Nations This link opens in a new window
Compilation of hundreds of thousands of public opinion survey questions and responses, at the local, state, national, or international level, 1986 to present.

The Gallup Organization
Opinion polls & trends.

Other Statistical Resources

ICPSR: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research This link opens in a new window
Archive of downloadable datasets that can be used with statistical software packages.

GPO: U.S. Government Printing Office
The U.S Government Printing Office (GPO) provides publishing and dissemination services for the official and authentic government publications to Congress, Federal agencies, Federal depository libraries, and the American public.

Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new window
U.S. statistics (mostly at the national level) from over a thousand sources, with downloadable tables in .csv and .xls formats and the ability to create customized tables and spreadsheets.

Data Tools

Use Social Explorer to look at demographic information (e.g. census, economic, election data etc.) in a visually useful way.

ArcGIS Online
Lightweight, web-based counterpart to desktop ArcGIS software. Contact tt103@wellesley.edu for an account.

State Stats offers easy-to-use social & demographic data for all 50 U.S. states for the past 15 years. Data can be mapped, graphed or exported to Excel.

Citing Data

The general rule for citing data is to stick with the style for citing a journal article. Definitely include the creator, title, year of publication, publisher (usually the archive in which it is found), edition or version, and access information (e.g. a URL).

The idea is to give credit to the author or producer of the data, and give information to allow others to find the data you found.

Citing a map from Social Explorer? The database offers advice and examples on how to cite their maps.

Comparing Data

The Census and the ACS are two different surveys that have similar, and sometimes overlapping, questions and topics. It's important to keep in mind that different questions are asked in different years when comparing data across time. Check out the Census Bureau's FAQ Guide for comparing ACS data to Census data.