Statistics: Crime & Justice

There are many places to find data related to crime and justice. Within the United States, local, state and national agencies collect data. If you're researching local crime rates, for example, check the county website, as well as the state's website on crime data. If you're researching Minnesota, you would find Minnesota Crime Statistics through the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Other states will have similar departments. 

Do similar digging if you're looking at statistics in other countries. See if local or national agencies provide crime data via their websites.

You can also find statistics within scholarly literature, so pay attention to any statistics you come across and track down where the researcher found them (or if the researcher generated the statistics through their own scholarship).

Please reach out to a librarian for help, too. We enjoy helping you identify and track down statistics. Remember that if you google "crime statistics" to evaluate the site so you know what you're looking at and where the data originated. Librarians can help you vet sites, too, and are happy to take a look at what you've found.

We are monitoring the disappearance of government data and websites; the removal began on 2/1/25. Many individuals and organizations have been collecting and compiling removed data. You can find links to many of those here. If you come across links that are not here, please email us to have it included.

Guides from Other Libraries: We are indebted to the work being done by libraries and other organizations to document and preserve removed data. We will link to guides and resources as we become aware of them. 

• Finding Government Information during the 2025 Administration Transition - from the University of Minnesota libraries: "This guide will point to resources that identify and track steps taken by the Trump administration and Congress to scale back or eliminate access to federal government information. It also provides links to groups performing data and website rescue."
• Disappearing Federal Data - from Collins Memorial Library at the University of Puget Sound

General/Overall:

• End of Term Web Archive
• GovWayback - access government documents via the Wayback Machine from prior to January 20, 2025 using the directions provided

Environmental Data & Information:

• Public Environmental Data Project - read about the project here
• Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data - from the Urban Ocean Lab

Heath Data & Information:

• Restored CDC - RestoredCDC.org is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or any government entity. Read more about the project.
• CDC Guidelines - from Jessica Valenti, includes information about contraception, sexual health, youth, LGBTQIA, sexual & intimate partner violence
• CDC Datasets

Bluesky users are encouraged to follow the Data Rescue Project (@datarescueproject.org) for updates on efforts and groups who are working to preserve data. The account also provides a "starter pack" of similar accounts to follow. You can also visit their website.

Interested in contributing to data rescue?  Read "Curating for Data Rescue" by the Data Curation Network. You can also consult the checklist for USA federal data backups from MIT libraries.

Use these sites if you are looking for crime and justice statistics in the United States. Be sure to look at state and county-level data as well. For international data, see if your country has a national-level department on crime or public safety. As with all searches, we invite you to consult with a librarian at any step.