JUSTFAIR: Judicial System Transparency through Federal Archive Inferred Records.

Journal Article (Academic article)

In the United States, the public has a constitutional right to access criminal trial proceedings. In practice, it can be difficult or impossible for the public to exercise this right. We present JUSTFAIR: Judicial System Transparency through Federal Archive Inferred Records, a database of criminal sentencing decisions made in federal district courts. We have compiled this data set from public sources including the United States Sentencing Commission, the Federal Judicial Center, the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system, and Wikipedia. With nearly 600,000 records from the years 2001-2018, JUSTFAIR is the first large scale, free, public database that links information about defendants and their demographic characteristics with information about their federal crimes, their sentences, and, crucially, the identity of the sentencing judge.

Full Text

Duke Authors

Cited Authors

  • Ciocanel, M-V; Topaz, CM; Santorella, R; Sen, S; Smith, CM; Hufstetler, A

Published Date

  • October 26, 2020

Published In

Volume / Issue

  • 15 / 10

Start / End Page

  • e0241381 - e0241381

PubMed ID

  • 33104748

Pubmed Central ID

  • PMC7588062

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1932-6203

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1932-6203

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1371/journal.pone.0241381

Language

  • eng