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A small number of those who commit crimes are heavily involved in drugs commit a large portion of the crime in this country. An evaluation of a "smart supervision" effort in Hawaii that uses swift and certain sanctioning showed that individuals committing crimes who are heavily involved in drug use can indeed change their behavior when the supervision is properly implemented.

Moderator: Brett Chapman, Ph.D., NIJ Social Science Analyst.

Panelists:

• Ambassador John Miller, U.S. State Department
• Mark Montigny, Massachusetts State Senator
• Norma Hotaling, Founder of the SAGE (Standing Against Global Exploitation) Project

Watch two experts talk about developing a computerized system that successfully predicts — with a high degree of accuracy — which probationers are likely to violently reoffend within two years of returning to the community.

Drs. Barnes and Hyatt teamed up with the Philadelphia Adult Probation & Parole Department in an NIJ-funded project. Here they discuss:

NIJ Conference
Interview
June 2012
Amy Farrell, Northeastern University

NIJ has funded a study looking at the barriers that local communities face identifying, investigating and prosecuting human trafficking cases under new state human trafficking laws.

In this interview, Amy Farrell discusses that study.

NIJ has funded an evaluation of the Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification. The program, funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, provides funds to states automate and improve how victims are notified about information surrounding their case. In this interview, Seri Irazola discusses the evaluation.

Opening Plenary Panel
When researchers and practitioners work side by side, they can maximize their problem-solving abilities. The research partner can focus on the data and the science; the practitioner can focus on interpreting the findings and applying them in the field. In the plenary panel, panelists described the benefits, challenges and pitfalls of researcher-practitioner partnerships with a focus on the financial benefits to the practitioner.

Moderator: John H. Laub, Director, National Institute of Justice

Panelists:

In this interview, Deanna Rivard discusses how agencies can get help funding body armor, work on improving the fit of body armor and the importance of wearing it.

NIJ Conference Keynote Address

The recent declines in U.S. prison populations have caused many reformers to suggest that America's experiment with mass incarceration is ending. But current prison downsizing policies may well backfire if we fail to heed the lessons learned from the intermediate sanctions movement of the 1990s. In the event attendees rated highest, Dr. Petersilia summarizes these lessons and discussed why we must consider them if we want to reverse — for good — four decades of prison expansion.

Each year, 100-200 law enforcement officers die in the line of duty. Last year, 177 lost their lives — a 16-percent increase from 2010. As Attorney General Eric Holder noted, this is a devastating and unacceptable trend. NIJ has developed a robust research portfolio to improve officer safety and wellness and, ultimately, save lives. This panel discussed some of NIJ's most promising work to reduce shooting and traffic-related fatalities — consistently the leading causes of officer line-of-duty deaths — and improve officer wellness, which is inextricably linked with officer safety.

NIJ has funded a study examining the impact of wrongful convictions on crime victims. The study is looking at the impact on the original victim of the crime to get a better understanding of what their service needs are, and how we can better serve them both in terms of policy and practice.

Research tells us that a relatively small fraction of individuals experience a large proportion of violent victimizations. Thus, focusing on reducing repeat victimization might have a large impact on total rates of violence. However, research also tells us that most violent crime victims do not experience more than one incident during a six-month or one-year time period. As a result, special policies to prevent repeat violence may not be cost-effective for most victims.

NIJ's Eric Martin discusses the Institute's ongoing evaluation of the HOPE program for drug-involved offenders. 

Our mission is to help the justice system efficiently deliver outcomes for individuals regardless of wealth or status, and a necessary component of our work is strengthening and improving indigent defense. How we do that is of course varied, but one important aspect is the research that's needed to identify solutions to indigent defense, and that's why the solicitation is so important.

The criminal justice system encounters and supervises a large number of drug abusing persons. Punishment alone is a futile and ineffective response to the problem of drug abuse. Addiction is a chronic brain disease with a strong genetic component that in most instances requires treatment. Involvement in the criminal justice system provides a unique opportunity to treat drug abuse disorders and related health conditions, thereby improving public health and safety.

Dr. Alpert discusses police use of force and conducted energy devices. 

Expert Chat Webinar

The surge in incarceration since 1980 has been fueled in part by the mistaken belief that the population can be divided neatly into "good guys" and "bad guys." In fact, crime rates are not determined by the number of at-large criminals, any more than farm production is determined by the number of farmers. Crime is a choice, a choice that is influenced by available opportunities as much as by character. This perspective, drawn from economic theory, supports a multi-faceted approach to crime control. Dr.

Dr. Kirk discusses how Hurricane Katrina affected those formerly incarcerated persons originally from New Orleans and their likelihood of returning to prison. Kirk also discussed potential strategies for fostering residential change among those who were incarcerated, focusing specifically on parole residency policies and the provision of public housing vouchers.

NIJ Conference

Interview

June 2011

John Laub, Director, National Institute of Justice, and Robert Sampson, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University

Lawrence Bobo, Harvard University, delivers the Keynote Address at the NIJ Conference 2011. His speech "The Importance of Research on Race, Crime and Punishment" underscores the importance of continuing to undertake the research and policy-based efforts necessary to decouple the nexus of race, crime, and punishment that defines our social landscape.