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US Federal Offences and Penalties
Public Safety & Security
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About
Data details federally recognized criminal offences in the US, along with their corresponding legal penalties. The inspiration for this resource came from the need to associate crimes from various datasets with a numerical measure of severity. While simple comparisons, such as between murder and petty theft, are straightforward, contrasting complex acts like rape and murder requires a consistent metric. For this purpose, the law-defined maximal penalty serves as the quantitative measure of severity.
Columns
The material contains 4 columns detailing the offences:
- Offence: The official name of the recognized offence. This column is 100% valid across 398 records and features 387 unique values. Aggravated burglary is listed most frequently (1%).
- Contrary to: Identifies the specific law or statute under which the offence is classified. This field is 100% valid and contains 333 unique legal references, including Common law (4%) and the Firearms Act 1968 (2%).
- Maximum penalty: States the maximum penalty prescribed for the given offence. If a value is lacking, it signifies that there is no maximum penalty defined. This column is 56% valid, with 177 records (44%) missing. There are 14 unique penalties, with 'Life' being the most common specific penalty (15%).
- Type: Represents the general category of law to which the offence belongs. This field is 100% valid and contains 9 unique categories. The category OFFENCES INVOLVING SERIOUS VIOLENCE OR DAMAGE AND SERIOUS DRUGS OFFENCES accounts for 27% of records, followed by SEXUAL OFFENCES AND OFFENCES AGAINST CHILDREN (15%).
Distribution
The information is provided in a single CSV file named
AmericanOffencesPenalty.csv, which is 52.58 kB in size. The dataset includes 398 valid records across 4 columns. Data quality is generally strong, though the Maximum penalty column has 44% missing values. This resource is static and is never expected to receive future updates.Usage
This resource is ideally suited for researchers and analysts in law and social science seeking to quantify the perceived severity of criminal acts based on legislative penalties. It is specifically useful for comparing different criminal charges using the maximal penalty as a numerical benchmark.
Coverage
The scope covers the list of federally recognized offences and their associated legal penalties in the United States. The material details the names of the recognized offences and their maximum penalties.
License
CC0: Public Domain
Who Can Use It
The dataset is intended for users interested in law, social science, and crime data. It holds a maximum usability rating of 10.00.
Dataset Name Suggestions
- US Federal Offences and Penalties
- American Crime Severity Measures
- Legal Penalties for US Offences
Attributes
Original Data Source: US Federal Offences and Penalties
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