Instructions

Disproportionate treatment can occur at each stage of a criminal legal case, from arrest through sentencing, and beyond. “Cumulative disproportionality” reflects all the decisions made up to that point in time.

AEJG built and maintains these Equity Dashboards to help you begin to consider how each choice in the life of a criminal case may contribute to, reflect, or help resolve disproportionality and inequity. To start, explore our data sources or select a use case to learn more about the Equity Dashboard types.

Use Cases

Find out how different races are impacted by conviction disproportionality over time.

Conviction Proportionality

Understand a judge's typical sentencing record compared to other judges.

Sentencing Proportionality: Summary

Find out how different races are impacted by sentencing disproportionality over time.

Sentencing Proportionality: Deep Dive

Look up all cases in a state where the person was given more than 20 years and was under 18 years old.

Case Drill Down / Export

Understand if the proportionality comparisons are statistically significant.

Statistics

Data Sources

Washington State Census population data

Governments, nonprofit organizations, and businesses rely on the U.S. population information provided decennially through the Census. Over time, the Census Bureau has changed the way it classifies race and ethnicity. Historically, the changes have been influenced by social, political and economic factors including emancipation, immigration and civil rights. More information can be found at www.census.gov.

Washington State Caseload Forecast Council (CFC) data

CFC data is available for the years July 1, 1999 - June 30, 2020. Outlier cases in the CFC data have been filtered out of AEJG's sentencing views (550 cases with sentences > 9998 months). Washington’s legislature and administrative agencies use CFC data to inform their understanding of caseloads and budgets. The data, available at WA Caseload Forecast Council, includes all adult felony cases in Washington Superior Courts. The CFC obtains their data, including demographics, from the forms prepared at each felony sentencing hearing.

The Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) data

The Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) maintains information and records from court case management systems across Washington's non-unified courts, including the Judicial Information System (JIS), the Superior Court Management and Information System (SCOMIS), the Appellate Court System (ACORDS), and Odyssey. AOC uses the data to develop operational budgets, evaluate judicial system functionality, maintain the computer system that serves the entire court system, provide continuing judicial education, compile statewide court statistics, and provide information to the judicial community, other branches of the government, and the public. The AOC tracks data from points at all stages of felony cases filed in any of Washington's 39 superior courts, with the exception of King County.

Data set problems and limitations

This data is used despite data limitations that can impact proportionality analysis and mask disparities. Please review the following documents for details.