Published on: Thursday, March 4, 2021

The U.S. Sentencing Commission on Wednesday released a new report, Federal Armed Career Criminals: Prevalence, Patterns, and Pathways.

The report provides information on offenders sentenced under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), including an overview of the Act and its implementation in the federal sentencing guidelines. The report also presents data on offender and offense characteristics, criminal histories, and recidivism of armed career criminals.

ACCA requires a 15-year mandatory minimum term of imprisonment for offenders who violate 18 U.S.C. ยง 922(g) and have three or more prior convictions of a violent felony, a serious drug offense, or both.

Some of the key findings include:

Armed career criminals consistently comprise a small portion of the federal criminal caseload, representing less than one percent of the federal criminal caseload. During the ten-year study period, the number of armed career criminals decreased by almost half, from 590 in fiscal year 2010 to 312 in fiscal year 2019.

Recidivism rates of armed career criminals varied depending on whether they had prior convictions for violent offenses and the number of such prior convictions.

  • Nearly two-thirds (62.5%) of armed career criminals with prior violent convictions and no prior drug trafficking convictions, and more than half (55.0%) of armed career criminals with both prior violent and drug trafficking convictions were rearrested within the eight-year follow-up period. In comparison, only 36.4 percent of armed career criminals with prior drug trafficking convictions and no prior violent convictions were rearrested during the study period, but there were only 12 such offenders.
  • Furthermore, 61.7 percent of armed career criminals with three or more prior violent convictions were rearrested during the eight-year follow-up period compared to 48.9 percent of armed career criminals with one or two prior violent convictions.