FY 2026 Criminal History Record Assessment and Research Program (CHRARP)
🏛 Bureau of Justice Statistics
✓ Free, no account · Source: Grants.gov · Last verified Sep 4, 2026
Can you apply?
This grant is for research organizations and state/federal criminal justice agencies that can work with criminal history data. Eligible recipients typically include universities, research institutions, and state or federal agencies capable of processing and standardizing criminal history records. The work involves converting raw criminal history data into standardized research datasets and supporting recidivism analysis. Geographic scope is national, as the project involves federal and multistate criminal history record repositories.
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Program description
This opportunity seeks to provide support to further the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)’s mission to produce accurate and timely statistics on recidivism and criminal histories of offenders. The focus of the work is to assist BJS with converting state- and federal-specific fields in criminal history records into research datasets with standardized codes that support statistical analysis and to provide support with multiple recidivism statistics and research projects.
BJS uses criminal history data collected from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and state record repositories to study recidivism patterns and criminal careers of various offenders, including persons on probation or discharged from prison. Each state has a central repository that maintains criminal history records within their jurisdiction and operates a system for disseminating those records. The FBI also maintains a repository from the federal justice system and U.S. territories. The repository also contains records from state, local, and tribal agencies that the FBI is responsible for disseminating. The content of these administrative records varies among FBI and state repositories and the recipient of funds will assist BJS with converting these data into datasets for statistical analysis. The recipient will also assist with multiple recidivism statistics and research projects.
Prior CHRARP programs developed programs, codes, and crosswalks tables. The crosswalk tables hold BJS’s national recode of state- and federal-specific data fields found in the rap sheet datasets which provide consistent data coding across studies and reduce the time and effort to standardize a subsequent parsed dataset when the text fields (e.g., offense and court descriptions) in the criminal history data match the same text fields encountered in datasets from previous studies. The 2026 CHRARP will continue building upon the work of the prior CHRARP programs (CCHRRD, and the 2015 and 2020 CHRARPs) by refining state crosswalks, increasing accuracy of codes to process the criminal history records, and data analysis. Information about these prior programs is available in the full funding opportunity description. The 2026 CHRARP will thoroughly examine the content and attributes of the criminal history data, identifying and documenting differences in the composition of the arrest, prosecution, court, and supervision information within and across jurisdictions. The recipient will work with BJS to identify potential data quality issues and obtain feedback from federal, state, and tribal agencies as needed about these issues. The recipient will develop methods to successfully transform 100% of the data fields found in the parsed rap sheet datasets into BJS’s standardized values and work with BJS to identify existing offense classification tables from state and federal agencies and prior CHRARP projects that could assist with the standardization tasks for this project. Applicants are encouraged to propose cost-efficient methods and innovative solutions to convert state- and federal-specific data fields into a uniform coding structure and account for variations in administrative records when analyzing multistate data.
Who can apply
Eligible applicants
How to apply
Application links
Required documents
- Project Narrative with detailed work plan
- Budget and Budget Justification
- Organizational capacity and experience documentation
- Key personnel resumes/biographical sketches
- Letters of commitment from state/federal criminal justice agencies
- Data sharing agreements or MOUs with FBI and state record repositories
Program contact
- 👤 Bureau of Justice Statistics
- 📧 AskBJS@usdoj.gov
- 📞 0000000000
Funding track record
Recent awards under CFDA 16.734 from the last 3 years — real organizations that won funding through this same program.
Top 10 Largest Recent Awards
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$5,399,590
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$4,984,036
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$4,496,252
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$4,455,666
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$3,999,959
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$3,999,752
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$3,968,275
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$3,599,993
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$3,299,964
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$3,037,354
Top States by Funding
- NC 18 awards $29.1M
- MD 6 awards $14.4M
- IL 4 awards $7.4M
- DC 4 awards $6.8M
- CA 2 awards $4.6M
Source: USAspending.gov — federal spending transparency. Data covers last 3 years.
Funding history
Annual funding for this program — Federal obligations (CFDA 16.734). How funding has trended year over year.
| 2024 | $12,264,525 |
FAQ
Who can apply for this grant?
Research institutions, universities, state or federal criminal justice agencies, and organizations with expertise in criminal history data processing typically qualify. Strong data science and criminal justice research capabilities are essential.
What is the deadline?
The deadline is September 21, 2026. This is a fixed deadline, so early submission is recommended.
What activities does this grant support?
The grant funds converting state and federal criminal history records into standardized research datasets, developing crosswalk tables, improving data coding accuracy, and supporting recidivism research projects.
How competitive is this grant?
This is highly competitive federal research funding. Applicants should demonstrate prior experience with criminal justice data, strong methodological expertise, and detailed work plans.
What is the funding range?
The total available funding is $1,750,000. Exact award amounts vary by proposal scope and quality.
💡 Tips for applicants
- Build your proposal on successful prior CHRARP projects (2015, 2020, CCHRRD) and demonstrate how you'll advance their work.
- Emphasize cost-efficient and innovative methods for standardizing multistate criminal history data.
- Clearly document your team's experience with FBI and state criminal history repositories.
- Address data quality issues upfront and propose concrete solutions for handling variations across jurisdictions.
- Plan regular coordination with BJS, state agencies, and tribal partners throughout the project.
⚠️ Common mistakes
Underestimating the complexity of cross-jurisdictional criminal history record variations. Weak partnerships with state, federal, or tribal agencies responsible for the data. Vague workplans that don't clearly link deliverables (crosswalk tables, standardized datasets) to BJS's recidivism research goals.
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