create a standing advisory committee and make continued use of ad hoc user and stakeholder workshops.

We have avoided ranking data collections for several reasons, among them that the current collections are necessary for coverage of events in the justice system; elimination of data series would make BJS appear more visibly to fail to fulfill its massive legal mandates. However, this report suggests a mix of short- and long-term ideas for improving the evidence with which crime and justice policy in the United States is developed. The strategic goals we suggest through this report provide BJS a set of principles against which the content of its data collection portfolio can be assessed. In its thirtieth year, BJS can look back on a solid body of accomplishment; our work in this report suggests further directions for improvement to give the nation the justice statistics—and the BJS—that it deserves.