Yesterday, we reviewed the data on how the Second District criminal cases decided by the Supreme Court between 1990 and 2004 were distributed among the Second’s twelve counties.  Today, we’re finishing our review, looking at the years 2005 to 2019.

In 2005, the Court decided four cases from Du Page county, two from Kane and Boone counties, and one each from McHenry, Winnebago and Ogle.  In 2006, the Court decided four cases from Kane county, two from Lake and one from Du Page and Ogle.  In 2007, the Court decided two cases from Du Page and one each from Winnebago, De Kalb and Kane.  In 2008, the Court decided four criminal cases from Du Page county, two from Lake and Winnebago, and one each from McHenry and Kane counties.  In 2009, the Court decided one criminal case each from Lake, Du Page, Winnebago and Kendall counties.

In 2010, the Court decided three cases each from Du Page and Kane counties, two from Lake, Winnebago and Boone and one from De Kalb county.  In 2011, the Court decided three cases from Du Page county, two from Lake and one from Boone.  In 2012, the Court decided two cases from Lake and one from Stephenson.  In 2013, the Court decided three cases from Lake and one each from Winnebago and Kane.  In 2014, the Court decided two cases from Kane county and one case each from Kendall, Du Page and Lake.

In 2015, the Supreme Court decided two criminal cases that originated in Kane county and one from De Kalb.  In 2016, the Court decided only one Second District criminal case, and it was from Kendall county.  In 2017, the Court decided one case each from Du Page, Winnebago, Kane and Boone counties.  In 2018, the Court decided two cases from Du Page county and one each from Lake, Kane, Stephenson and Kendall counties.  So far this year, the Court has decided only one Second District criminal case, which came from McHenry county.

Let’s wrap up by comparing population and total cases.  Same methodology as last time: we’re comparing (1) the percentage of the total population of the Second District counties held by each county; to (2) the percentage of the total Second District criminal cases decided 1990-2019 by the Supreme Court originating in that county’s Circuit Court.  Recall that last time, we discovered that there wasn’t a particularly close relationship, even over the course of thirty years, between population and case distribution.

As shown below, criminal cases tend to stick closer to the population distribution than civil cases do.  For example, Lake county accounted for 22.06% of the population (as of 2010) and 22.84% of the cases.  Du Page is 28.75% of the population, 24.37% of the cases.  Kane is 16.16% of the population and 22.84% of the cases.  Winnebago is 9.26% of the population, 12.69% of the cases.

Relatively few counties stray very far from a proportional share – McHenry is 9.68% of population, 4.06% of cases.  Boone county is 1.7% of the people, 3.56% of the cases.  De Kalb and Ogle are both small counties – 3.3% and 1.68% of the population, respectively – and both account for 2.54% of the criminal cases.  Kendall county is 3.6% of the population and 2.03% of the cases.  Jo Daviess and Stephenson counties are even smaller – 0.71% and 1.5%, respectively, of population – and are both 1.02% of the criminal cases.  Finally, Carroll county accounts for 0.48% of the people and contributed zero criminal cases to the Supreme Court’s docket 1990-2019.

Join us back here next Tuesday as we take on another District.

Image courtesy of Flickr by   (no changes).