Prosecutorial Data

This interactive dashboard presents data on criminal cases and charges handled by Maine’s eight prosecutorial districts. This data comes from JustWare, a case management system used by Maine’s District Attorneys, and includes all cases referred to district attorneys between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2023. This historical aggregate data can be filtered by district and year as well as by any other categories displayed on the page.

Categories

A seven-category typology is used for this dashboard, which is based on the Maine criminal statute associated with each charge.

1. 1. Personal offenses include assault, domestic violence, and sexual assault
   2. Property offenses include theft and burglary
   3. Drug offenses include possession of a controlled substance
   4. Public offenses include disorderly conduct and resisting arrest
   5. Violations include violations of court orders or conditions of release
   6. Motor vehicle offenses include criminal speeding and operating after suspension
   7. Other offenses include Inland Fishery & Wildlife offense or other criminal offenses

Definitions

Active case: a case in which there was no outcome entered into the system at the time the data was queried.

Active deferral: a deferred disposition in which there was no final disposition entered into the system at the time the data was queried.

Acquitted case: a case where a jury or judge found the defendant not guilty on all charges.

Cases referred: a case referred by law enforcement to prosecutors.

Closed case: a case where a final decision has been made.

Closed deferral: a case where a deferred disposition has been dismissed or resulted in a conviction.

Convicted case: a case with a conviction on any charge.

Case outcome: how a case is resolved. Case outcome is based on the case status and/or at least one charge has been disposed.

Declined case: the prosecutor closed the case without filing charges.

Deferred disposition: a case in which an agreement is reached that the relevant charge(s) may be dismissed or given a lesser sentence, assuming that the defendant complies with the conditions of the agreement during a given timeframe.

Dismissed case: a case where charges were dismissed after filing, either by the court or by prosecutors.

Filed with court: the prosecutor initiated criminal proceedings (i.e., the case was not declined).

Highest-level charge: the charge with the highest offense class. If the case had more than one charge with that class, the first charge listed was selected as the highest-level charge.

Non-deferred disposition: all other closed cases filed with the court that are not deferred dispositions.