U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 

amount for a State subgrant award to a locality is $5,000. If

a locality qualifies for an allocation of less than $5,000, that

amount must be expended by the State to provide JAIBGrelated services to such locality.

Assistance Available From JRSA

Although most State JAIBG program administrators have access

to their State’s crime data, few have access to local expenditure

data and most lack the time and resources required to calculate

local allocations under the JAIBG formula. To help States calculate local allocation amounts, OJJDP, through an interagency

agreement with the Bureau of Justice Statistics, established the

JAIBG Technical Support Center to provide States with crime and

expenditure data collected by the Federal Government (and supporting documentation). 

The Center also maintains a Web site (www.jrsa.org/jaibg) that

provides formula calculations and allocations for each State and

its localities. Spreadsheets containing this information can be

downloaded from the site. Other resources available from the

Technical Support Center include definitions and background

information about the JAIBG program; additional expenditure,

crime, and tribal data; and documents from various States detailing the administration of their JAIBG programs. 

Data Sources for JAIBG

The JAIBG Technical Support Center analyzes crime and expenditure data collected by the Federal Government from States and

localities. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) Uniform

Crime Reporting (UCR) Program collects crime data, and the

U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of the Census collects

expenditure information (through its Census of Governments survey). Although the JAIBG formula requires States to use the 3

most recent years of data in calculating local awards, the Bureau

of the Census collects information on units of local government at

5-year intervals. To address this inconsistency and ensure use of

the most current data possible, the Technical Support Center uses

JRSA Helps States Determine Local

JAIBG Allocations

by Lisa Walbolt

In fiscal year 1998, Congress established the Juvenile

Accountability Incentive Block Grants (JAIBG) program. The

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)

administers the program and awards block grants to States,

which, in turn, are required to pass a portion of the funds through

to local jurisdictions. JAIBG awards must be used to support programs in 12 purpose areas specified in the JAIBG legislation,

each of which is designed to promote greater accountability in

the juvenile justice system.

To help States and units of local government implement JAIBG

programs, OJJDP funds the JAIBG National Training and

Technical Assistance Alliance, a group of 18 OJJDP grantees.

The alliance, managed by Development Services Group, Inc.,

provides a single point of contact for training and technical assistance requests. One of the alliance members, the Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA), operates the JAIBG

Technical Support Center, which assists States in calculating the

amount of JAIBG funds to distribute to, or expend for the benefit

of, eligible local jurisdictions. This Fact Sheet discusses the

JAIBG Technical Support Center. 

JAIBG Pass-Through Requirements

States are required to pass through 75 percent of JAIBG funds to

eligible units of local government. A State may receive a waiver

of the 75-percent local pass-through requirement by demonstrating that it bears the primary (more than 50 percent) financial burden for the administration of juvenile justice (measured by

expenditures for the 12 JAIBG purpose areas).

A formula established by Congress governs States’ allocation of

JAIBG awards to local jurisdictions. According to this formula,

the amount a State must allocate to a locality depends on a combination of law enforcement expenditures and the average annual

number of Uniform Crime Report Part 1 violent crimes (including murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery,

and aggravated assault) reported by the locality for the 3 most

recent calendar years for which data are available. The minimum

June 2001 #26
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POSTAGE & FEES PAID

DOJ/OJJDP

PERMIT NO. G–91

FS–200126 Fact Sheet

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Washington, DC 20531

Official Business

Penalty for Private Use $300

only the most recent year of expenditure data in its formula calculations. Only direct, current operating expenditures for police,

judicial/legal, and corrections programs are considered “expenditure data” for purposes of JAIBG. 

Although tribal nations are eligible to receive JAIBG funding,

neither the FBI nor the Bureau of the Census collects data from

tribes. JRSA, however, receives tribal data from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). State

administrators also receive these data.

State Data Pages

Every State and the District of Columbia have their own page on

the JRSA Technical Support Center Web site. Each State page

lists all units of local government (as defined in the JAIBG legislation) in the State and provides allocation calculations in three

formats: an interactive worksheet, spreadsheets, and a list of the

localities for which there are no data. The worksheet lists each

unit of local government and its allocation/award. States that have

received waivers to pass through less than 75 percent of JAIBG

grant funds to units of local government may use the worksheet to

recalculate award amounts based on their approved pass-through

amount. Two spreadsheets—one by locality name and one by

award amount—list locality awards of $5,000 (the minimum

authorized by statute) or more.

JRSA’s State Data Page allows users to download both the FBI

UCR data files and the Bureau of the Census expenditure data

files. A combined data file that matches the data for each unit of

local government is also available. Finally, the State Data Page

lists federally recognized American Indian tribes in each State and

makes tribal law enforcement data from BIA available for use in

formula calculations.

Allocation amounts are updated annually. Crime and expenditure

data are also updated regularly. FBI crime data are added and

updated annually, and Bureau of the Census expenditure data and

BIA tribal data are updated as new data become available.

For Further Information

For more information about JRSA’s JAIBG Technical Support

Center, contact:

Lisa Walbolt

Justice Research and Statistics Association

777 North Capitol Street NE., Suite 801

Washington, DC 20002

202–842–9330

202–842–9329 (fax)

www.jrsa.org/jaibg

jaibg@jrsa.org

To obtain copies of other OJJDP publications, contact:

Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse

800–638–8736

301–519–5600 (fax)

www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org

Lisa Walbolt is a Research Associate with JRSA, where she also manages the JAIBG Technical Support Center and the Incident-Based

Reporting Resource Center. 

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component 

of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice

Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice,

and the Office for Victims of Crime.

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