Federal Armed Career Criminals: Prevalence, Patterns, and Pathways

 

Summary

Today, the Commission released Federal Armed Career Criminals: Prevalence, Patterns, and Pathways, continuing its work in the areas of federal firearms offenders and recidivism, providing an overview of the Armed Career Criminal Act. This report provides an overview of the ACCA and its implementation in the federal sentencing guidelines. It also includes information on offender and offense characteristics, criminal histories, and recidivism of armed career criminals.

Highlights Armed career criminals consistently comprise a small portion of the federal criminal caseload, representing less than one percent of the federal criminal caseload. During the ten-year study period, the number of armed career criminals decreased by almost half, from 590 in fiscal year 2010 to 312 in fiscal year 2019. Armed career criminals have diverse and extensive criminal histories. The most common prior conviction for armed career criminals was for a public order offense; the overwhelming majority (85.3%) of armed career criminals had at least one prior conviction for such an offense. Drug trafficking was the second most common offense, consistent with its designation as a predicate offense under the ACCA; 70.8 percent of armed career criminals had at least one prior conviction for a drug trafficking offense. The overwhelming majority of armed career criminals had prior convictions for violent offenses. In fiscal year 2019, 83.7 percent of armed career criminals had prior convictions for violent offenses, including 57.7 percent who had three or more such convictions. Despite the predominance of violence in their criminal history, the most common prior conviction for armed career criminals was for public order offenses, with 85.3 percent having at least one such prior conviction. More than half (59.0%) of armed career criminals released between 2009 and 2011 were rearrested within the eight-year follow-up period.  Recidivism rates of armed career criminals, however, varied depending on whether they had prior convictions for violent offenses and the number of such prior convictions.  Nearly two-thirds (62.5%) of armed career criminals with prior violent convictions and no prior drug trafficking convictions, and more than half (55.0%) of armed career criminals with both prior violent and drug trafficking convictions were rearrested within the eight-year follow-up period. Read the report