Illinois Criminal History Record Information
Individual-level data on the arrest cycle, including misdemeanors and subsequent formal events in the criminal justice system, since the 1960s.
All events in the arrest cycle in Illinois, including misdemeanors
Access
Identifiable, individual-level data from the Criminal History Record Information (CHRI) Ad Hoc data set is available for research purposes. Researchers must gain IRB approval for their research project and request access from both the Illinois State Police (ISP) and the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA). Researchers initiate the process by emailing the Manager of the Criminal Justice Data and Analytics department at ICJIA, whose contact information can be found here. ICJIA will set up an initial phone call, and after the call provide the User Agreement template and Data Dictionary. If the request is approved, the process for matching data is determined on a case-by-case basis. The researcher's institution, ISP, and ICJIA enter into a mutual agreement: the CHRI User Agreement. The researcher must attach their research proposal and proof of IRB approval to the CHRI User Agreement upon submission.
Timeline for Access
According to ICJIA, the period between submission of a data request and receipt of data is generally at least 2-3 months. The application materials are first approved by ICJIA and are then forwarded to ISP for approval. The final signature is that of ICJIA’s Executive Director. Once the CHRI User Agreement is complete, the data matching process begins.
Lag Time
Data are updated daily and records in the CHRI data system are available immediately for research purposes. Lags due to data submission for updates after the arrest event are not easily stated because they are dependent on the processing of the case in the criminal justice system and subsequent receipt of data from various agencies.
Cost
There is no fee for electronic arrest records provided by ICJIA.
Linking
ICJIA provides data matching services for approved research projects. The researcher provides the finder file to which the CHRI files are matched.
Identifiers Available for Linking
- Date of birth
- First and last name
- First and last name and date of birth are the minimum data elements required by ICJIA for matching.
Data Contents
CHRI Ad Hoc data is organized into five data sets. The Arrestee and Sentences Imposed data sets contain one record per individual arrest event, while the Arrest Charges, State’s Attorney Charges, and Court Disposition Charges data sets contain one record per charge. See the data dictionary for more information.
Partial List of Variables
Arrestee: sex, race, date and county of arrest, zip code of home address, occupation at time of arrest, weapon code, deceased code, school name
Arrest Charges: charge count, offense class, domestic violence indicator, offense date, arrest type code
State’s Attorney Charges: State’s Attorney’s Office identifier, charge count, offense class, court case number
Court Disposition Charges: Court Clerk’s Office identifier, charge count, offense class, court case number, IUCR offence code, final disposition
Sentences Imposed: sentence code, sentence status code, sentence date, sentence length
Adult and juvenile records are stored separately. Additionally, the data sets contain a Document Control Number (DCN), which is uniquely assigned to each arrest event and allows researchers to link across CHRI data sets.
J-PAL Randomized Evaluations Using this Data Set
Jacob, Brian A., Max Kapustin, and Jens Ludwig. 2014. "The Impact of Housing Assistance on Child Outcomes: Evidence from a Randomized Housing Lottery.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 130(1): 465-506. doi: 10.1093/qje/qju030.