The Nebraska Center for Justice Research was established in 2014 with a mission to develop and sustain research capacity internal to the State of Nebraska. Our hope is to assist the Legislature in research, evaluation, and policymaking to reduce recidivism, promote the use of evidence-based practices, and improve public safety. The primary purpose of this report is to provide an overview of recent trends in Nebraska’s adult criminal justice system.

Most of the data in this report is presented statewide as well as separated into Nebraska’s twelve judicial districts. Nebraska’s two most metropolitan counties are represented by District 4 (Douglas County) and District 3 (Lancaster County). The classification of the remainder of the state’s 93 counties can be found in the table on page 5. Please contact NCJR for any questions regarding county-level estimates of the data included in this report.

This report represents trends for five years from 2008 to 2012. Although more recent data is available for some aspects of the criminal justice system, the most recent complete and comprehensive systemwide data was available for these years, which we adopt to maintain consistency and reliability