What are juvenile justice expenditures?
Title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, which describes the JABG Program, requires that states allocate funds to localities based on a formula consisting in part of juvenile justice expenditures. The term "juvenile justice expenditures" is defined as expenditures associated with the juvenile justice system, including expenditures in connection with the 17 purpose areas and with other activities associated with prosecutorial, judicial, and corrections services.

Currently, these expenditures are not collected at the national level, and where they are collected in the states, are not comparable or complete enough to use in the formula.   As a result, adult criminal justice expenditures, which are available at the national level, are used in the formula.   The Census categories used in the formula are judicial/legal and corrections expenditures.

Where do local justice expenditure data come from?
The Census Bureau collects justice expenditure data through two separate programs: the Census of Governments, conducted every five years, and the Annual Public Finances Survey.

What is a "unit of local government"?
Title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act defines "unit of local government" as "a county, township, city or political subdivision of a county, township, or city, that is a unit of local government as determined by the Secretary of Commerce for general statistical purposes." The District of Columbia and recognized governing bodies of Indian tribes and Alaskan Native villages are also defined as local units of governments. This language refers to the Census Bureau definition of "general purpose local government." Not all of these local units of government have justice-related functions and hence have no justice-related expenditures.

How are "justice expenditures" defined by the Census Bureau?
In the expenditure data used from the Census Bureau, justice expenditures include three general categories:  police protection, corrections, and judicial and legal services.   For the JABG program, however, only the corrections and judicial/legal expenditures are used in the formula.  Direct current operating expenditures for these activities are used.  Direct current operating expenditures cover salaries, wages, fees, commissions, and the purchase of supplies, materials, and contractual services.   Excluded are capital outlays such as construction, the purchase of land and existing structures, and the purchase of equipment with a life expectancy of more than five years.  Also excluded are intergovernmental expenditures such as payments from one government to another for boarding prisoners.

Why are capital outlay and intergovernmental expenditures excluded?
Capital outlay expenditures are excluded because (1) construction costs can cause wide swings in total justice expenditures from year to year for a given jurisdiction due to jail construction, for example, and (2) it is not possible to break out equipment purchases from costs for the purchase of land and existing structures on a consistent basis for all governments.   Intergovernmental expenditures are excluded because they comprise less than three-tenths of one percent (0.3%) of total local justice expenditures and would be "double counted" in local totals -- once when the intergovernmental payment is made and once when the recipient government uses the money to pay for goods and services.

How are the Census expenditure data collected?
The Census Bureau collects justice expenditure data through two separate programs. The most comprehensive, the Census of Governments, conducted every five years, collects expenditure data for all state and local governments in the nation. It uses three methods, depending on the size of the unit of government. On-site data collection is used for the largest and most complex local governments. Consolidated data submissions on computer tapes from a single state agency are used in about 35 states for approximately 50,000 additional local governments. The rest of the local governments respond via mail survey. For a discussion of the methodology used, see Expenditure Methodology.

The Annual Public Finances Survey also uses the three methods of data collection, but covers only a sample of all the units in the Census.

How many local governments are included in these Census programs?
The Census of Governments includes all local governments (there were about 39,000 general purpose local governments in 1992 and 22,000 in 1997). The Census of Governments is conducted every five years, in years ending in "2" and "7" (2002 and 2007, for example). The Public Finances Survey is conducted every year. The Public Finances Survey includes a sample of about 5,800 general purpose local governments: 1,580 counties, 3,350 cities, and 880 townships. All local governments above a particular population size are included in the sample: all counties over 100,000 population, and cities and townships over 50,000. The chances of smaller local governments being included in the survey depend upon their degree of financial activity.

What does this mean for my state?
For years that do not end in a "2" or "7," not all localities in your state will be included in the Public Finances Survey expenditure data, although the largest localities should be included in the sample. Again, not every locality will have justice expenditures, so some localities in your state will not be included in any case.   As a result, only data collected in the Census of Governments survey will be used to determine JABG allocation amounts.

What will JRSA provide?
First, we will provide a list of all of the localities in a given state, regardless of whether they report criminal justice expenditures. Then we will provide justice expenditures in spreadsheets from the Census of Governments Surveys and Public Finances Surveys, upon request.

Why are those the most recent years available?
In order for the Census Bureau to collect expenditure data, each state and local government must complete its fiscal year and have time to perform all the final year-end accounting and produce the official government financial records that are used in the compilation of data. Then, adequate time is required for the review and processing of data not just from the general purpose governments in the surveys, but also from the special and independent school districts surveyed by the Census Bureau (which are included in the Census data survey but are not eligible for JABG grants). The complete Census deals with a total of 85,000 governments (the 39,000 general purpose local governments, plus 46,000 special purpose governments).

Does my state have to use the Census Bureau data in our JABG formula computations?
No. The JABG legislation states that if the state has reason to believe that the reported rates of Part 1 violent crimes or law enforcement expenditure for a unit of local government is insufficient or inaccurate, the State may use the best available comparable data. Some states have internal data collection systems that can provide more current, and perhaps more comprehensive, justice expenditure data. If you're not sure whether such data are available in your state, try contacting your state's Statistical Analysis Center Director or Chief Financial Officer.