U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

Advancing Justice Through Science

Learn more about NIJ

Comprehensive Sexual Violence Prevention

Research shows that the most effective crime prevention programs are comprehensive, and that includes preventing sexual violence. A new NIJ Journal article outlines the growing evidence that supports deploying situational and developmental prevention approaches that complement traditional interventions to combat sexual violence.

2024 LEADS Scholarship Recipients

NIJ’s Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science (LEADS) program is designed to increase the research capabilities of law enforcement officers and agencies. This year, we selected 13 new LEADS scholars. We look forward to their contributions across the policing field!

Taking Teacher Victimization Seriously

School safety conversations often exclude teachers who experience victimization by students. However, in a recent NIJ-funded study only 17% of surveyed teachers reported no victimization within four years. The study measured seven types of victimization, including theft, verbal abuse, and physical assault, as well as teachers’ physical and emotional distress and satisfaction with school responses.

NIJ is seeking input as we develop a Public Access Plan to increase access to publications and data resulting from NIJ-funded research. Ensuring broad access to the products of NIJ-sponsored research is critical to achieving our mission to provide evidence, data, and tools to inform criminal and juvenile justice communities, victims services providers, and the public. The goals of the plan are to expand timely access to the results of NIJ-funded research and the data underpinning it. Facilitating access to both publications and data without barriers increases transparency and reproducibility. This has the potential to accelerate new discoveries and practical applications and contribute to evidence-based changes in policy and practice, which is all in the public interest. 

See the Federal Register announcement for more details and how to provide comments, which are due by 5 pm ET on November 29, 2024. 

Term of the Month — Veterans Treatment Courts

Veterans treatment courts are dedicated courts for individuals that have been diagnosed with substance use, mental health, or co-occurring disorders, and where there is a nexus between the veteran’s offending behavior and their military service. These judicially supervised criminal courts aim to reduce recidivism, increase access to treatment and recovery support, and prevent overdoses.  

Criminal Justice Data Archives

The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data archives data on crime and justice and contains data from over 2,700 curated studies or statistical data series. The website is home to several large-scale datasets, including the National Crime Victimization Survey, FBI's Uniform Crime Reports and National Incident-Based Reporting System, and the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods.

List of Compliant Ballistic Resistant Body Armor
Cali9/iStock (see reuse policy).

List of Compliant Ballistic Resistant Body Armor

NIJ certifies torso-worn ballistic resistant body armor for law enforcement that complies with the requirements our Compliance Testing Program. If you’re in the law enforcement profession, review a newly updated list of all compliant armor, searching by manufacturing company, gender, threat levels, and other factors.

Listen, Learn, Inform - About NIJ

Find funding opportunities

Find funding opportunities

NIJ awards research, development, testing, and evaluation grants.
Read the latest

Read the latest

Review a list of publications and articles from both NIJ and the researchers we fund.
Register for events

Register for events

Check out a list of our upcoming events. If you don't see anything of interest, we also offer a number of recorded, on-demand event and training opportunities.
Browse all topics

Browse all topics

Find articles and other information on a wide variety of criminal justice topics.

CrimeSolutions Program and Practice Ratings

PSYCHOPATHY.COMP (Portugal)

This is an individual compassion-focused, therapy-based intervention adapted from traditional compassionate-focused therapy to reduce psychopathic traits in youth in a correctional setting in Portugal.

Police Body-Worn Cameras (Boston, Massachusetts)

This involves police officers wearing cameras on their uniforms to improve the civility of their interactions with citizens.

Imprisonment for Individuals Who Committed a Drunk Driving Offense (New South Wales, Australia)

This involves prison time for individuals who have committed drunk-driving offenses to reduce their risk of recidivism upon their release.

Person holding a pen at an event.
Motorion/iStock (see reuse policy).

The First Step Act

The First Step Act of 2018 aims to reform the federal prison system and reduce recidivism. NIJ is working to assess and develop an existing risk and needs assessment system for incarcerated individuals, and develop recommendations regarding effective evidence-based recidivism reduction programs and activities.