Nationwide Felony Convictions on the Rise
Number of Felony Convictions in State Courts, 1994 to 2004 |
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In 2004, 1.07 million adults were convicted of a felony in state court compared to 872,000 adult convictions in 1994, according to the report.
Data for the report was taken from the National Judicial Reporting Program, a biennial nationwide survey of state-court sentencing. The survey also found that convicted felons were more likely to receive a prison sentence in 2004.
Approximately 40 percent of convicted felons were sentenced to state prison, while an additional 30 percent were sentenced to local jails, according to the report. The average length of sentence for felony convictions in the state court system was nearly five years.
Felons were sentenced to probation, serving no time, in almost 30 percent of conviction cases, according to the BJS report.
The most common offenses — one-third of all felony convictions — involved drugs, while almost one in five felony convictions were for violent offenses. Between 1994 and 2004, the number of violent felony convictions increased by 18 percent from 165,000 to 195,000, according to the BJS report.
The conviction rate for violent offenses also increased during the 10-year period. In 1994, 23 percent of those arrested on violent felony charges were convicted. By 2004, the conviction rate for violent offenses increased to 31 percent.
Although the average length of sentence for a violent felony conviction decreased between 1994 and 2004 — down from 10 years to 7.5 years — those sentenced for a violent felony in 2004 served a larger portion of their sentence before release, according to the BJS report.
Nationwide, 94 percent of felony convictions were issued in the state court system, with the remaining 6 percent occurring in federal courts.
