Offender Based Transaction Statistics (OBTS) Series
Investigator(s): Bureau of Justice Statistics
The Offender Based Transaction Statistics (OBTS) series was
designed by the Bureau of Justice Statistics to collect information tracking
adult offenders from the point of entry into the criminal justice system
(typically by arrest), through final disposition, regardless of whether the
offender is convicted or acquitted. Collected by individual states from
existing data, the datasets include all cases that reached disposition during
the calendar year. Using the individual adult offender as the unit for
analysis, selected information is provided about the offender and his or her
arrest, prosecution, and court disposition. Examples of variables included
are arrest and level of arrest charge, date of arrest, charge filed by the
prosecutor, prosecutor or grand jury disposition, type of counsel, type of
trial, court disposition, sentence type, and minimum and maximum sentence
length. Dates of disposition of each stage of the process allow for tracking
of time spent at each stage.