Trials are rare in the federal criminal justice system: Just 2% of criminal defendants went to trial in 2018. Acquittals are even rarer.
Attitudes vary considerably by race on issues including crime, policing, the death penalty, parole decisions and voting rights.
Blacks have long outnumbered whites in U.S. prisons. But a significant decline in the number of black prisoners has narrowed the gap.
Most Americans (65%) – including majorities across racial and ethnic groups – say it has become more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views since Trump was elected president.
California is one of 11 states that have the death penalty but haven’t used it in more than a decade
More than a third of the states that allow executions haven’t carried one out in at least 10 years or, in some cases, much longer.
Both violent and property crime in the U.S. have declined over the long term, but Americans regularly say crime is up.
St. Louis led the nation with 66.1 murders per 100,000 people in 2017. It was followed by Baltimore, Detroit, New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Pope Francis has changed the Catholic Church’s teaching to fully oppose the death penalty. Read key facts about the death penalty in the U.S. and abroad.
A new survey of public attitudes toward federal agencies finds that partisan differences in views of the FBI have increased markedly over the past year. And Americans’ opinions about Immigration and Customs Enforcement are deeply polarized.
As the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag turns 5 years old, a look at its evolution on Twitter and how Americans view social media's impact on political and civic engagement
