Our History

In 1968, the U.S. Congress passed the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act. Declaring that “crime is a local problem that demands local solutions,” the legislation created the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) to provide funding to states for improving the criminal justice system.

The National Criminal Justice Information and Statistics Service (NCJISS) was established under LEAA to collect, evaluate, publish, and disseminate statistics and other information on law enforcement. The service began operating in 1970; in 1972, it announced the founding of the Comprehensive Data Systems (CDS) program. Under the CDS program states received federal funding for several purposes including: establishment of Statistical Analysis Centers as the nucleus for coordinating each state’s criminal justice system and statistics activities. Later that year, SACs were established in seven states, and three existing statistical agencies were officially designated as Statistical Analysis Centers.

In 1974, the SACs created the Criminal Justice Statistics Association (CJSA) to promote the exchange of information among the SACs and enable them to work together toward common goals, and to serve as a liaison between the state agencies and Justice Department. By 1976, when the Association was incorporated as a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization, 34 states and the District of Columbia had Statistical Analysis Centers.

Upon termination of LEAA in 1980, 41 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico had SACs. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), which was established in 1979, took over the Federal role in funding SAC research and statistics activities, although BJS funds are not designed to fully support the SACs. Many states had already begun to fully or partially fund their SACs, whose primary role is to collect, analyze, and disseminate policy-relevant data for state decision makers. BJS provides funds for the SACs under the State Justice Statistics Program.

In 1991, CJSA changed its name to the Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA), to better reflect the expansion of roles over the years on the part of both the SACs and the Association. Read more about JRSA’s history.