author
Thomas P. Bonczar
Best known for turning correctional data into clear, eye-opening reports, this justice researcher wrote influential Bureau of Justice Statistics studies on imprisonment, probation, parole, and capital punishment in the United States.
1 Audiobook
Prevalence of Imprisonment in the U.S. Population, 1974-2001
by Thomas P. Bonczar
About the author
Thomas P. Bonczar is a researcher and statistician whose published work is closely tied to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. In BJS reports from the late 1990s through the 2010s, he is identified as a BJS statistician or Bureau of Justice Statistics author on studies covering imprisonment, probation, parole, and capital punishment.
His best-known work includes Lifetime Likelihood of Going to State or Federal Prison (with Allen J. Beck) and Prevalence of Imprisonment in the U.S. Population, 1974-2001. Those reports helped bring broad public attention to how many Americans had been incarcerated and how sharply imprisonment rates differed across demographic groups.
Available catalog and agency records also link him to publications such as Characteristics of Adults on Probation, 1995, Characteristics of State Parole Supervising Agencies, 2006, and later Probation and Parole in the United States reports. Reliable biographical details beyond his government research role are limited in the sources readily available online, so this profile focuses on the work that can be clearly confirmed.