Weapons arrests were one of three fastest-growing categories of federal suspects arrested and booked by the U.S. Marshals in 2005, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced September 30.
From 1995 to 2005, material witness arrests (20 percent) and immigration arrests (15 percent) were the two fastest-growning annual-rate arrest categories, followed by weapons violations at 11 percent.
In 2005, immigration (27 percent) was the most prevalent arrest offense followed by drug (24 percent) and supervision violations (17 percent).
Forty percent of all suspects arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service were arrested in 1 of 5 federal judicial districts along the U.S.-Mexico border, including Arizona, New Mexico, the Southern and Western Districts of Texas, and the Southern District of California. Nearly 1 in 4 (23 percent) of all suspects arrested in 2005 were arrested in the Southern and Western Districts of Texas.
The U.S. Court of Appeals received 14,644 filings in 2005 — an increase of 44 percent from 1995. About 1 in 6 appeals filed in 2005 were weapons offenses (16 percent).
The report, Federal Justice Statistics, 2005 (NCJ 220383), was written by BJS statistician Mark Motivans. Following publication, the report can be found www.ojp.usdoj.gov.
