Convictions for September 2025
Referring Agency: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during September 2025 the government reported 1178 new convictions for these matters. Those cases were referred by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 26 percent over the previous month.
The comparisons of the number of defendants convicted are based on case-by-case information obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (see Table 1).
When monthly 2025 convictions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of convictions was only slightly down (-0.8%). Convictions over the past year are still much higher than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that convictions of this type are up 73.9 percent from levels reported in 2020.
Figure 1. Monthly Trends in Convictions
The increase from the levels five years ago in convictions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of convictions of this type recorded on a month-to-month basis. Where a prosecution was initially filed in U.S. Magistrate Court and then transferred to the U.S. District Court, the magistrate filing date was used since this provides an earlier indicator of actual trends. The superimposed line on the bars plots the six-month moving average so that natural fluctuations are smoothed out. The one and five-year rates of change in Table 1 and in the sections that follow are all based upon this six-month moving average. To view trends year-by-year rather than month-by-month, see TRAC's annual report series for a broader picture.
Cases were classified by prosecutors into more specific types.
The largest number of convictions of these matters in September 2025 was for "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force", accounting for 17.1 percent of convictions. Convictions were also filed for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (12.9%), "Project Safe Childhood" (12.8%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (12.1%), "Violence-Other" (6.6%), "Fraud-Other" (5.4%), "Violence-Indian Country" (4.9%), "Fraud-Financial Institution" (2.5%), "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (2.5%), "Other Criminal Prosecutions" (2.3%). See Figure 2.
Convictions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In September 2025, no defendants in cases for these matters were convicted in U.S. Magistrate Courts. These courts handle less serious misdemeanor cases, including what are called "petty offenses." In addition, complaints are sometimes filed in the magistrate courts before an indictment or information is entered. In these cases, the matter starts in the magistrate courts and later moves to the district court where subsequent proceedings take place.
Convictions in U.S. District Courts
In September 2025, 1176 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during September there were an additional 0 defendants whose cases moved from the magistrate courts to the U.S. district courts after an indictment or information was filed. The sections which follow cover both sets of cases and therefore cover all matters filed in district court during September.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the convictions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during September 2025 referred by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 191 1 1 1 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 122 2 2 3 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 97 3 3 2 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 85 4 4 5 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 57 5 5 7 More 18 USC 1951 - Hobbs Act 35 7 6 6 More 18 USC 2250 - Fail to register as sex offender after traveling interstate commerce 29 8 16 14 More 18 USC 1349 - Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy 25 9 15 16 More 18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes 25 9 8 4 More Table 2. Top Charges for Convictions
"Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 841) was the most frequent recorded lead charge. "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 841) was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 1 five years ago.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Firearms; Unlawful acts" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 922. "Firearms; Unlawful acts" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 922 was ranked 2 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 five years ago.
Ranked 3rd was "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846. "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846 was ranked 3 a year ago, while it was ranked 2 five years ago.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in convictions — up 64.4 percent — compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 2250 that involves " Fail to register as sex offender after traveling interstate commerce ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase — 264.3 percent — was registered for convictions under "Other US Code Section " (Title U.S.C Section ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in convictions compared to one year ago — down 17.9 percent — was " Bank robbery and incidental crimes " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 2113 ). This was the same statute that had the largest decrease — 6.2 % — when compared with five years ago.
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In September 2025 the Justice Department's case-by-case records show that the government obtained 421.4 convictions for every ten million people in the United States.
Understandably, there is great variation in the per capita number of convictions in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.
The districts registering the largest number of convictions per capita for these matters last month are shown in Table 3. Districts must have at least 5 convictions to receive a ranking.
Judicial District Percapita Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago D. C. 4,418 25 1 1 64 More W Virg, N 3,499 27 2 71 84 More S Dakota 2,119 16 3 34 33 More N Dakota 1,990 13 4 63 56 More Ala, S 1,933 14 5 87 56 More Okla, E 1,771 11 6 29 82 More N Mexico 1,646 29 7 15 16 More La, E 1,464 20 8 49 83 More Vermont 1,297 7 9 79 55 More W Virg, S 1,280 9 10 53 75 More Table 3. Top 10 Districts (per ten million people)
The District of Washington, D.C. (Washington) — with 4418 convictions as compared with 421.4 convictions per ten million population in the United States — was the most active during September 2025. The District of Washington, D.C. (Washington) was ranked 1 a year ago.
The Northern District of West Virginia (Wheeling) ranked 2nd.
District of South Dakota is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were New Mexico , now ranked 7th , and Eastern District of Oklahoma (Muskogee) at 6th In the same order, these districts ranked 15th and 29th one year ago and 16th and 82nd five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of convictions compared to one year ago — 192.9 percent — was Southern District of Alabama (Mobile). Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth — 1316.7 percent — was Northern District of West Virginia (Wheeling).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of convictions — 82.2 percent — was Washington, D.C. (Washington). But over the past five years, Vermont showed the largest drop — 15 percent.
Top Ranked District Judges
At any one time, there are about 680 federal District Court judges working in the United States. The judges recorded with the largest number of new crime cases resulting in convictions of this type during September 2025 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank Groh, Gina Marie W Virg, N 16 1 More Jordan, Sean D. Texas, E 14 2 More White, Ronald A. Okla, E 10 3 More O'Connor, Reed Charles Texas, N 9 4 More Saldana, Diana Texas, S 9 4 More Haikala, Madeline H. Ala, N 8 6 More Humetewa, Diane Joyce Arizona 8 6 More Kendall, Virginia Mary Ill, N 7 8 More Roman, Nelson Stephen N. Y., S 7 8 More Simon, Michael Howard Oregon 7 8 More Table 4. Top Ten Judges
A total of 2 out of the "top ten" judges were in districts which were in the top ten with the largest number of convictions per capita, while the remaining 8 judges were from other districts.
Judge Gina Marie Groh in the Northern District of West Virginia (Wheeling) ranked 1st with 16 convicted in convictions.
Judge Sean D. Jordan in the Eastern District of Texas (Tyler) ranked 2nd with 14 convicted in convictions.
Judge Ronald A. White in the Eastern District of Oklahoma (Muskogee) ranked 3rd with 10 convicted in convictions.
Report Generated: December 8, 2025
