Abstract
To date, very little empirical work has been conducted that examines the Department of Justice's (DOJ) prosecutions of criminal civil rights violations under federal criminal code 18 U.S.C. 242. The purpose of the research is to begin a formal examination of the DOJ prosecutions of justice system officials by examining the types of cases that are selected for prosecution, in which area of the justice system do they occur, and their relationship to the overall number of complaints. Using a unique dataset, all prosecutions under 18 U.S.C. 242 from 2001-2006 were examined. Findings reveal that most complaints are levied against local police and correctional officers, prosecutions are not evenly distributed across federal circuits, and acquittal rates are extremely low. Additional noteworthy findings include significant variations in offense type among justice professions, whereby police officers typically are charged with robbery/theft while correctional officers are prosecuted for excessive force.
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