Re-conceptualizing statistical abstracts in the 21st century: An empirical study of sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics

Web-available information resources continue to diversify and proliferate; new segments of the population join the Internet; and technological capabilities of the Web expand. One arena in which these changes are being manifested is in federal statistical information dissemination. Statistical abstracts, a dominant form of information dissemination, are being reshaped in the face of these changes. In this study, a panel of experts from criminal justice and cognate fields participated in a four-round Delphi study to develop a mission statement for the next five years for one statistical abstract, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics [Pastore, A. L., & Maguire, K. (Eds.). (2001). Sourcebook of criminal justice statistics. Retrieved January 28, 2004, from http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/]1, and a list of associated requirements for attaining that mission. Participants see the role of statistical abstracts as continuing to be important in demonstrating the range of available statistical information and providing easy access to the most commonly used statistics. Their utility can be enhanced by technological advances. The findings have implications for the role of statistical abstracts in general.