NIJ at the 2023 American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting

8:00 to 9:20 a.m., Franklin Hall 7, 4th Floor

The ABCD-Social Development Study; (SD) is a prospective delinquency sub-study to the nationwide Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD). The ABCD-SD, involving from 5 of the 21 ABCD Study sites, includes 2,426 individuals and their caregivers at SD baseline (average age 11.6 years). The study is funded by the National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is in its fifth year of data collection. One of the advantages of the ABCD-SD is the linkage to ABCD Study data, including biannual MRIs starting at age 9-10. Using this data, the ABCD-SD researchers investigate delinquent behaviors, victimization, dispositional factors, factors relevant to substance use and their relationships in the context of brain development, environmental factors, and protective factors. Three presentations constitute this first full panel using data from this study. The presentations provide an overview of initial analyses on delinquency, neurobiological measures, and psychometrics. The results from the study will be discussed in the light of the future of longitudinal studies, emphasizing the need to build in social justice perspectives into research designs.

9:30 to 10:50 a.m.; Franklin Hall 7, 4th Floor

This panel will highlight linked studies that directly compare sentiments and issues surrounding reporting by intimate bystanders on loved ones who may be on the trajectory to terrorism and targeted violence, replicated across four different countries: the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada. In 2018, NIJ funded Community Reporting Thresholds: Sharing Information with Authorities Concerning Terrorism and Targeted Violence. This study built on landmark Australian (funded by CVESC-ANZCTC) and U.K. (funded by ESRC-CREST) studies to understand the dynamics and barriers to community reporting in the U.S. to develop new, localized and contextually sensitive understandings and approaches to community reporting issues in the U.S., followed by the Canadian replication study (funded by The Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence, Public Safety Canada). All four studies are complete, and researchers from two of the four countries will share what these findings have shown in the American and Canadian contexts. Information about behavioral threat assessment and management teams, the development of the Social Ecological Model of Intimate Bystander Reporting for Targeted Violence Prevention, and similarities and differences in reporting barriers and facilitators across the two countries will be discussed. Actionable research, policy, and practice recommendations, as well as country-specific implications, will be shared.

11:00 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.; Franklin Hall 7, 4th Floor

The COVID-19 pandemic required juvenile justice systems across the nation to make unprecedent and abrupt changes to policies and practices. This panel will present findings from a portfolio of federally-funded research on how these systems were impacted by and responded to the pandemic, lessons learned, and recommendations for practitioners on policies and practices that can be sustained to promote public safety and produce better outcomes for youth. Specifically, this panel will highlight (1) national data on juvenile courts and other components of the juvenile justice system; (2) state-level policy and practices changes related to admissions to, transfers between, and releases from juvenile placement facilities; and (3) policy and practice responses within one state’s juvenile facilities and their impact on youth outcomes.

12:30 to 1:50 p.m., Franklin Hall 7, 4th Floor

The relationship between immigration and crime has been the subject of much debate and great concern for public officials. Although there are arguments that stringent immigration enforcement policies are needed to combat increased risk of crime by undocumented immigrants, research has established that immigrants are generally less likely to commit crime than native-born citizens. In FY 2019 and FY 2020, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) funded research studies to address nuanced questions about the relationship between immigration and crime perpetration and victimization in the United States. While much criminological research on immigration in the United States has focused on crime perpetration, NIJ grantees have contributed to a growing body of research that examines immigrants’ experience of victimization. This panel presents the findings of three of those studies. Two studies use mixed methods, one examining victimization and neighborhood contexts among Asian and Hispanic immigrants in the San Francisco Bay area, the other examining violent victimization among undocumented immigrants in Arizona. The final study uses calls-for-service data from 10 large police jurisdictions and a novel method for estimating the unauthorized immigrant population in census tracts to explore differences in crime reporting and emergency services use.

2:00 to 3:20 p.m.; Franklin Hall 7, 4th Floor

Practitioners seek innovations in juvenile justice practices to improve outcomes for youth while ensuring public safety. Rigorous research is needed to identify practices that work. The panel will present findings from NIJ-supported research on innovative intake and supervision practices to reduce reoffending and improve outcomes. Specifically, this panel will highlight (1) findings supporting the development of an intake risk-screening tool in one rural state; (2) the impact of implementation of risk-needs assessment and risk-need-responsivity case management in five juvenile probation offices from two states; and (3) a process evaluation of Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice’s Regional Service Coordination Model focused on creating practice-relevant tools and resources for probation officers and Regional Service Coordinators, including a tool to match youth to community-based services.

Wed, Nov 15, 12:30 to 1:50pm, Franklin Hall 1, 4th Floor

This panel features the current directors of the National Institute of Justice and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, who will share information about their agencies’ priorities, research and data updates, and funding opportunities. The panel will provide members of the audience with the opportunity to ask questions of the panel members.

8:00 to 9:20 a.m.; Room 308, 3rd Floor

The National Institute of Justice’s (NIJ’s) CrimeSolutions and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Model Programs Guide have for decades served as reliable, evidence-based repositories. They continue to be important resources for researchers, practitioners, and communities for enhancing their understanding of the effectiveness of programs and practices related to juvenile and criminal justice and victims of crime, and they provide insight into what works, what doesn’t work, and what is promising in crime prevention. There has been a continual effort to maintain transparency and consistency in the CrimeSolutions review process. As a part of this, NIJ has begun conducting an internal review of the processes of CrimeSolutions. The panel will discuss preliminary findings; the strengths of CrimeSolutions, as well as areas for improvement; and the potential for future change.

2:00 to 3:20 p.m., Franklin Hall 1, 4th Floor

This panel features presentations from emerging scholars in the area of developmental and life course criminology.

2:00 to 3:20 p.m., Room 406, 4th Floor

This panel describes the national evaluation of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a flagship initiative by the US Department of Justice (US-DOJ) to reduce violent crime across the U.S. and territories. PSN includes enforcement, prevention, and reentry efforts that leverage law enforcement, prosecution, and community partnerships to address violent criminals in violent locations. The panel highlights evaluation techniques tailored to the PSN model, adjustments necessitated by changing conditions, and key findings.

Panelists will describe a national evaluation funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) comprising a national-level assessment and case studies in 10 districts. The evaluation aims to develop strong evidence on the effectiveness of PSN in reducing violent crime and the elements that influence effectiveness. Presentations feature 1) an overview of the “enhanced PSN” begun in FY2018 and the national evaluation; 2) findings from semi-structured interviews with PSN Coordinators illustrating local implementation of the PSN model; 3) application of synthetic control methodologies in outcome analyses across diverse case study sites; and 4) use of sophisticated data imputation and analytic techniques to robustly examine changes in crime rates despite disruptions caused by changes to the Uniform Crime Reporting system and by the COVID-19 pandemic

2:00 to 3:20 p.m., Salon K, 5th Floor

In 2021 the National Institute of Justice hosted a national recidivism forecasting challenge with the aims of advancing actionable knowledge that would assist in increasing public safety and the fair administration of justice. At the conclusion of the Challenge, fifty-six teams won prizes across several categories that examined overall accuracy, accounting for gender specific needs, and minimizing racial bias. This panel seeks to share insights learned from the Challenge that can be utilized to advance the goals of public safety and fair administration of justice. Paper one compares the accuracy of the winners advanced models to basic models, contextualizing the degree of improved accuracy. Paper two reviews the 56 teams Challenge reports and highlights important insights learned from the winner’s submission. Papers three and four draw from a two-day winners’ symposium where Challenge participants gathered to discuss the Challenge, strategies to increase gender responsivity, account for racial bias, and important principles to consider when developing and implementing risk assessments. This collection of papers provides important information that can be used to inform how the criminal justice field utilizes machine learning techniques in developing risk assessments, common challenges in using these methodologies, and important considerations when implementing them into communities.

3:30 to 4:50 p.m., Room 306, 3rd Floor

3:30 to 4:50pm, Franklin Hall 7, 4th Floor

This roundtable will detail ongoing collaborations between National Institute of Justice and the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice.

8:00 to 9:20 a.m.; Franklin Hall 3, 4th Floor

This panel presents preliminary findings from a National Institute of Justice funded study designed to examine deaths in custody. A landscape scan and secondary analysis of deaths that occurred while in the custody of criminal justice officials is conducted. We examine the policies and practices associated with law enforcement, jail, and prisons deaths.

9:30 to 10:50 a.m.; Franklin Hall 11, 4th Floor

Positive Youth Justice (PYJ) is gaining in popularity in youth justice settings in the U.S., yet there are many questions about how to implement it into probation practice. This panel will provide preliminary findings from the longer-range Positive Youth Justice and Optimizing Supervision Project, a multi-state study of 15 probation offices designed to identify elements of PYJ that influence reduction of recidivism after taking risk factors and receipt of risk reduction services into account. This project also will quantify how the influence of risk vs. protective factors and use of strengths-based vs. risk reduction services are moderated by youths’ age and race/ethnicity. This session will report initial findings from over 1800 court-referred youth who received a risk/needs assessment and self-report protective factor measures of domains expected to be strongly associated with reoffending (prosocial identity, prosocial activities, social skills and supports, and self-control). The panel will start with an overview of this NIJ-funded project and its methods followed by three research presentations. The first presentation will report psychometric data on a potential measure of prosocial identity. The next two studies will discuss the composition of key protective factors in this population by age and race/ethnicity.

Fri, Nov 17, 9:30 to 10:50am, Room 304, 3rd Floor

Research on ensuring the successful reintegration of people exiting prison and returning to society is extensive and robust. Yet much less is known about the unique challenges and needs of people returning home after serving time for terrorism-related crimes. In FY19, NIJ solicited research to better understand the challenges and opportunities associated with the unique and complex reintegration process experienced by these individuals. This panel will feature preliminary findings from two reentry studies focused on this population. However, the work doesn’t end there. While successful reintegration is a top priority, the more complex and nuanced task of understanding - and perhaps even achieving - deradicalization is an intertwined goal that requires further research. Two additional NIJ-funded studies aim to provide this complementary perspective: a longitudinal study on risk and protective factors as they relate to extremism exit, and a formative evaluation and evaluability assessment of a current intervention/deradicalization program.

2:00 to 3:20 p.m., Franklin Hall 2, 4th Floor

The trafficking of minors for commercial sex is an urgent public safety and health problem facing communities across the United States. Over the last two decades, law enforcement and the child welfare system have taken on increased responsibility for the identification and response to sex trafficking of minors. Minor sex trafficking survivors have numerous psychological and physical health concerns that exacerbate their vulnerability for exploitation. Additionally, sex trafficking victimization itself is associated with serious psychological and physical health consequences. These NIJ-funded studies take a mixed-methods approach to examining the needs of, and responses to, minors who are survivors of sex trafficking. The first study advances research knowledge on health outcomes for minor sex trafficking survivors, with the goal of improving our understanding of factors that facilitate and impede health care access. The second study describes a feasibility evaluation and pilot study, leading to a process and five year outcome evaluation of rapid response and long-term services for minor sex trafficking victims provided by LOVE146. The third study assesses and documents the response by law enforcement to child sex trafficking cases across the country. All three studies will be contextualized and discussed by an expert on child and adolescent traumatic stress.

3:30 to 4:50 p.m.; Franklin Hall 7, 4th Floor

The National Juvenile Justice Data Analysis Program is OJJDP’s central, primary resource to assemble juvenile justice-related data, analyze and report on complex data and issues, and develop publications and online resources to make juvenile justice data easily accessible to the field and the general public. The project is a core research activity supported by the National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ), the research division of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, from which dozens of reports and web-based products have become a standard in the field. This panel will present recent analyses from the project including: youth in residential placement, how states handle youth who possess small amounts of marijuana, the impact of modified race category details on placement rates, and the impact of prior offending on racial and ethnic fairness.

8:00 to 9:20 a.m.; Franklin Hall 10, 4th Floor

Sexual misconduct including sexual harassment, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking among students at educational institutions in the United State (U.S.) is an important public health and safety issue. Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 prohibits sexual misconduct at U.S. schools and federal guidance mandates prevention and response strategies. The studies in this session examine the prevalence and predictors of experiencing and reporting sexual misconduct, the effect of awareness training and educational programs, and the impact of resources and supports directed at harmed students.

9:30 to 10:50 a.m., Franklin Hall 12, 4th Floor

Minor and youth victims of human trafficking are identified and served in both child welfare systems and juvenile justice systems. However, little is known about youth characteristics, and involvement in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. This panel presents a series of papers from a study using linked administrative data for children born after 1993 from Florida’s Department of Children and Families, Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Data from 1993 to early 2020 were analyzed in efforts to address research questions related to 1) screening for possible human trafficking, 2) secondary and tertiary prevention of human trafficking, and 3) long-term criminal justice system involvement. The first paper presents findings on the predictive utility of Florida’s Human Trafficking Screening Tool. The second paper looks at youth characteristics and any prior child welfare and/or juvenile justice experiences that predict an initial human trafficking allegation, as well as subsequent allegations. The third paper explores the relationship between any youth human trafficking allegations and later involvement in the adult criminal legal system.