Quantitative Data Collection Court Monitoring Program data were obtained from two sources: court trial forms, completed by MADD Nebraska staff and volunteers, and the Nebraska Trial Courts Case Search System database, hereafter called Justice. CMP volunteers included concerned community members, college students interested in volunteering and/or requiring internship hours for a class, and retired adults. Data from the court trial forms were collected from four categories: 1) case information, 2) charges, 3) sanctions/sentence and 4) comments. Examples of case information included defendant name, date of birth and name and location of court. Charges recorded included the original charge, final charge, amended, and arresting agency. Examples of sanctions/sentences imposed included jail time, fines, ignition interlock, license suspension/revocation, and probation. Information collected by court program monitors were verified by MADD Nebraska CMP staff through records accessed from Justice. This database provided a detailed record of each DUI case presented to the court. Case information, charges, and sanctions imposed were available through the Justice system. Data obtained from the Justice database was compared to information recorded on the court trial form to assure accuracy of data collection by court program monitors. Case files with Case Year 2017 were utilized for the data collection. Close to one hundred percent of all cases were included in the analysis if a county had 300 or fewer DUI arrests in the year of interest for analysis. If a county had more than 300 DUI arrests (i.e., Hall County) a random number of cases, for a total of close to 300 were chosen for analysis for expedited data analysis. Data Analysis Data from closed and misdemeanor DUI cases with sanctions imposed were entered into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for analysis. Variables of interest for this report included rulings, number and type of amended cases, length of case, offender age and gender, offense type, and sanctions imposed. Data was reported by frequencies, percentages, and averages.
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