Methodology

Data Source

All data comes from VirginiaCourtData.org, the public repository of Virginia criminal court records. We analyze 423,021 cases from 1989-2025 across 7 Hampton Roads jurisdictions: Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Newport News, Hampton, Portsmouth, and Suffolk.

What We Measure

Dismissal Rate: The percentage of resolved cases where charges were dismissed or a nolle prosequi was entered. A dismissed case means the charges were dropped.

Conviction Rate: The percentage of resolved cases resulting in a guilty plea or guilty verdict at trial.

Case Duration: Days from filing date to disposition date. We report the median (middle value) and the P25-P75 range (middle 50% of cases).

Charge Reduction Rate: The percentage of cases where the original charge was amended to a lesser charge.

Officer Statistics: For each arresting officer or complainant with 20+ cases, we compute their case dismissal rate and compare it to the regional average.

What We Don't Do

• We never publish individual defendant names or case details
• We do not predict outcomes or provide legal advice
• We do not access sealed, expunged, or restricted records
• We do not analyze demographic data for individual pages (aggregate only)

Limitations

• Statistics reflect historical patterns and do not guarantee future outcomes
• Data may include cases under appeal or with pending motions
• Officer and judge name matching is approximate (same name = same person within jurisdiction)
• District court data does not include a separate judge field in all cases
• We require a minimum of 20 cases to generate statistics for any page

Updates

Data was last refreshed in December 2024. We plan to update the database as new public records become available.