"The Criminal History of Federal Economic Crime Offenders"

The title of this post is the title of this new report released late last week by the US Sentencing Commission.  Here is a basic summary and key findings from this USSC webpage:

Summary

For the first time, this report provides in-depth criminal history information about federal economic crime offenders, combining the most recently available data from two United States Sentencing Commission projects.

Key Findings

• The application of guideline criminal history provisions differed among the different types of economic crime offenders.
• The extent of prior convictions differed among the different types of economic crime offenders.
  • About half of all federal economic crime offenders had at least one prior conviction in their criminal history.
  • Prior convictions were most common among counterfeit and forgery (71.1%), identity theft (70.4%), credit card fraud (68.7%), and financial institution fraud (68.6%) offenders.
  • Prior convictions were least common among computer-related (29.6%) and government procurement (25.4%) fraud offenders.
• Federal economic crime offenders did not “specialize” in economic crime.
  • Convictions for prior economic offenses were not the predominant types of prior convictions. 
  • Fourteen percent of federal economic crime offenders had convictions for prior economic offenses only, to the exclusion of other types of convictions. 
  • Convictions for prior “other” offenses, such as DUI and public order, were the predominant types of prior convictions.
• The severity of criminal history differed for offenders in the specific types of economic crime.
  • Financial institution fraud, credit card fraud, identity theft, mail-related fraud, and counterfeit and forgery offenders had relatively serious criminal histories compared to other economic crime offenders.
  • Government procurement and computer-related fraud offenders had comparatively less serious criminal histories compared to other economic crime offenders.
• Only about one-quarter of federal economic crime offenders with prior convictions were not assigned criminal history points under the guidelines.