---
kind: "section"
citation: "34 U.S.C. § 12101"
title: "34"
title_heading: "Crime Control and Law Enforcement"
number: "12101"
heading: "Definitions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/34/12101"
units:
  - "Subtitle I — Comprehensive Acts"
  - "Chapter 121 — Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement"
  - "Subchapter I — Prisons"
  - "Part A — Violent Offender Incarceration and Truth-in-Sentencing Incentive Grants"
---

# §12101. Definitions


Unless otherwise provided, for purposes of this part—

- (1) the term “indeterminate sentencing” means a system by which—
  - (A) the court may impose a sentence of a range defined by statute; and
  - (B) an administrative agency, generally the parole board, or the court, controls release within the statutory range;
- (2) the term “part 1 violent crime” means murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault as reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for purposes of the Uniform Crime Reports; and
- (3) the term “[State](/usc/34/11103.md?p=7)” means a [State](/usc/34/11103.md?p=7) of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 103–322, title II, § 20101, as added Pub. L. 104–134, title I, § 101[(a)] [title I, § 114(a)], Apr. 26, 1996, 110 Stat. 1321, 1321–15; renumbered title I, Pub. L. 104–140, § 1(a), May 2, 1996, 110 Stat. 1327.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

Section was formerly classified to section 13701 of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare, prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section.

### Prior Provisions

A prior section 20101 of Pub. L. 103–322, title II, Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 1815, related to grants for correctional facilities prior to the general amendment of subtitle A of title II of Pub. L. 103–322 by Pub. L. 104–134.