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1997-98 Academy Text Supplement

Chapter 5

The Role of Federal and State Law: The Judicial System and Victims of Crime

The Federal Judicial System

• In the federal judicial system, 94 District Courts and 12 regional Courts of Appeals adjudicate approximately 310,000 criminal and civil cases each year. (Statistical Report for the Justices and Judges of the United States. April, 1997.)
• There are approximately 1,991 federal judges in the federal judiciary. (Ibid.)

The federal judiciary has faced significant increases in case loads. The Committee on Long- range Planning for the Federal Judiciary released a report entitled Proposed Long Range Plan for the Federal Courts that provides the most recent information on the impact of increasing crime on the federal judiciary. It highlighted the following trend:

• U.S. District Courts faced an increase of criminal cases, from 27,968 to 45,774 during the period of 1980 to 1994. (Proposed Long Range Plan for the Federal Courts. (1995, November). Judicial Conference of the United States.)

The State Judicial System

• State courts serve as the primary institution for adjudicating criminal and civil disputes in the United States. There are 16,400 state trial courts operating in the 50 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. (Statistical Report for the Justices and Judges of the United States. April, 1997.)
• Of these courts, 13,874 are limited jurisdiction courts and 2,513 are general jurisdiction courts. In 1994, 27,194 trial judges served in state courts. (Ibid.)
• In 1995, 86 million new cases were filed in state courts, including: 20 million civil and domestic relations cases; nearly 13 million criminal cases; approximately two million juvenile cases; and approximately 51 million traffic and ordinance violations. (Strom, B. & Lauder, N. (1996). "A National Perspective from the Court Statistics Project." Examining the Work of State Courts, 1995. National Center for State Courts.)
• Overall, criminal case filings reached an all-time high in 1995 -- over 13 million cases were filed -- a 38 percent increase since 1984. (Ibid.)
• The most rapid growth in domestic relations cases occurred in the area of domestic violence, with filings in 1995 increasing over 99 percent since 1989. (Ibid.)

The Tribal Court System

• The Tribal justice system is composed of 325 Tribal Courts. (Information from the National American Indian Court Judges Association, April, 1997)

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