Criminal Enforcement Case Report Data Dictionary

The Criminal Enforcement Case Report data dictionary describes the data elements that are presented in the Criminal Enforcement Case Report (see Criminal Enforcement Case Report Help). The Criminal Enforcement Case Report contains data from EPA's Summary of Criminal Prosecutions database. A Case Report summarizes concluded federal criminal actions investigated or prosecuted by the U.S. EPA. Users may report possible data errors by selecting the "Report Data Error" link at the top of the Criminal Enforcement Case Report.

The Criminal Enforcement Case Report is organized into the following sections:


 Basic Information

The Basic Information section contains information that identifies the action and some key descriptive variables, such as fiscal year, statute, and citation. This information is a summary of the more detailed record of the case that is presented in the rest of the report.

Fiscal Year
The federal fiscal year in which the enforcement action was initiated. A federal fiscal year begins on October 1 and ends September 30 of the following year.
Statute
The law violated and cited in the enforcement action.
Citation
The citation of the law(s) broken identified by their title and section in the U.S. Code. The citation is displayed as [TITLE] USC [section]. Users can search for the text of the laws by navigating to the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.
Title
The title of the corresponding law in the U.S. Code associated with the enforcement action. There are 54 Titles in the U.S. Code. For example, a common title cited by U.S. EPA is Title 42 “The Public Health and Welfare”.
Section
The section of the corresponding law in the U.S. Code associated with the enforcement action. The section number may also include a subsection.

 Defendants

This section provides identifying information about the defendants and courts involved in the criminal enforcement case.

Name
The name of each defendant. A defendant may be an individual or corporate entity.
Defendant Type
The role of each defendant in the case, either Principal Defendant or Defendant. Multiple defendants (up to fourteen) may be associated with one case, but only one is designated as principal.
District
The United States district courts are the trial courts of the federal court system. There are 94 federal judicial districts, located in all states and territories of the United States. States may have more than one district, these districts are broken down by geographic location.
The following acronyms are used:
  • Eastern District: E.D.
  • Western District: W.D.
  • Northern District: N.D.
  • Southern District: S.D.
  • Central District: C.D.
To locate the appropriate district court for a geographic location, please review the U.S. District Courts' listing.
State
The state or territory of the U.S. district court.
Case Identifier
A unique identifier for the defendant. This code is pulled directly from the criminal database.

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 Case Summary

A summary of the violation(s), environmental problem(s), and a description of the cause of action (basis of legal action). The summary may be extracted from the referral transmission memo or letter or as the first section of a revised standardized referral document.


 Case Details

A list of the violation(s), environmental problem(s), and a description of the cause of action organized by date of occurrence. The case details walk through each step of the case activities and displayed the date on which each occurred. Some case details may include press releases.


 Locations

This section provides geographic locational information for the criminal activity.

City
The name of the city, town, village or other locality, when identifiable, within whose boundaries (the majority of) the criminal activity was located. This is not always the same as the city used for USPS mail delivery. The city was derived in ECHO based on the latitude and longitude provided in the Summary of Criminal Prosecutions database.
State
The two letter abbreviation that represents the U.S. state or territory.
County
The name of the county, when identifiable, within whose boundaries (the majority of) the criminal activity was located. The county was derived in ECHO based on the latitude and longitude provided in the Summary of Criminal Prosecutions database.
ZIP
US postal ZIP code. The ZIP code was derived in ECHO based on the latitude and longitude provided in the Summary of Criminal Prosecutions database.
EPA Region
The EPA region where the criminal activity occurred. EPA has 10 regional offices that execute programs within several states and territories.
Latitude
The latitude coordinates of the criminal activity.
Longitude
The longitude coordinates of the criminal activity.