Evaluation of Project Safe Neighborhoods

This project involves a joint effort of the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) and the Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA) to evaluate the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative. The evaluation includes a national assessment of all 93 districts to estimate the broad effects of PSN on violent crime and 8–10 site-level evaluations to provide detailed analyses of local PSN efforts and outcomes. Both levels address research questions on violent crime outcomes and implementation (e.g., how PSN principles were implemented; partnership composition and its functioning, and how its implementation was associated with differences in outcomes. The national assessment incorporates data provided by local PSN task forces (monthly counts of violent crimes in targeted areas; strategic plans; semiannual progress reports; prosecution filings); public data (e.g., Uniform Crime Reports); additional information provided by DOJ on program implementation, resources, and guidance; and observations during PSN conferences. RTI/JRSA will develop a dashboard for sites to submit crime data; extract and clean qualitative data from other sources for quantitative analyses; hold semiannual check-in calls; and conduct Web-based surveys of key stakeholders for additional information. Site-level evaluations each include detailed, multi-method study of program implementation, violent crime outcomes, and factors affecting implementation and outcomes. RTI/JRSA will supplement each site’s national assessment data through monthly calls with local PSN coordinators and semiannual site visits. Sites will be selected that have good incident-based and geocoded data coupled with an interest in RTI’s Calls-for-Service Analytics (CFS) platform, greatly enriching analyses. RTI will lead the project, drawing on its expertise and experience conducting large, multilevel evaluations of complex criminal justice initiatives; analyzing incident-based crime data; and supporting jurisdictions in using the CFS Analytics platform. JRSA will be working with criminal justice agencies, including U.S. Attorney’s offices, and cleaning and standardizing grantee-provided crime data. "Note: This project contains a research and/or development component, as defined in applicable law," and complies with Part 200 Uniform Requirements - 2 CFR 200.210(a)(14).CA/NCF

The multisite, multilevel evaluation of the enhanced Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative was awarded to RTI International and its partner, the Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA), for 2020 and 2021. The proposed study will extend the evaluation for an additional 2 years (2022–2023) to assess the impact of PSN activities over an additional 24 months and to generate critical analyses, reports, and scholarly products for the field. Activities funded under Phase 2 will allow the PSN evaluation to contribute to the knowledge base concerning violence reduction by identifying key elements of a successful violence reduction strategy and key roles that federal leadership can play in addressing violent crime.  

Proposed study activities include a national assessment in all 94 United States Attorney Office (USAO) districts and case studies in 10 USAO districts.  The national assessment will result in an objective and rigorous evaluation of PSN implementation and impact across all USAO districts by documenting the implementation of PSN strategies and identifying which strategies appear to be associated with the most significant reductions in violent crime from the pre-enhanced PSN time period (2015–2017) to the enhanced PSN time period (from 2018 on). The case study component will be an in-depth assessment of the implementation and impact of the enhanced PSN model in 10 districts (and 14 target enforcement areas) that offer a strong test of the enhanced PSN model. Case study analyses will examine how violent crime in each target enforcement area changed over time (before and after PSN 2.0); relative to trends in similar non-PSN areas; and relative to trends in crimes not targeted by PSN. Multiple data sources will be used in the evaluation, including existing data provided by the Department of Justice, summary- and incident-level crime data acquired from law enforcement agencies or state or federal repositories, PSN stakeholder interviews and web surveys, site visits, and community resident surveys.

The study will directly benefit criminal justice policy makers, practitioners, and researchers, as well as community-based organizations and citizens affected by violent crime.  Study products and deliverables will include interim reports produced for PSN personnel in case study sites; required reports submitted to NIJ (e.g., financial and progress reports, final research report); scholarly products (e.g., journal articles, conference presentations) intended for researcher, practitioner, and policy maker audiences; and a public use data set to facilitate replication and additional analyses.