NIJ FY18 Understanding the Impacts of Policing Strategies and Practices

With this solicitation, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) seeks proposal for research and/or evaluation projects to examine the impact of police crime-reduction practices and strategies on four variables. Those are: (1) crime, (2) officer safety, (3) criminal investigations, and (4) criminal prosecutions. NIJ will accept proposals for research examining person- or place-based practices and strategies. NIJ is particularly interested in examining the practice of proactive policing and its related strategies, especially focused deterrence. NIJ will not accept proposals for projects that do not include crime as a variable, nor will NIJ accept proposals that only address crime without consideration of at least one other of the three remaining variables. NIJ is particularly interested in proposals for research that address all four variables. Additionally, applicants should consider the role of intervening variables such as department and neighborhood characteristics. Practices and strategies can impact police officers and their leadership in unanticipated ways, such as affecting morale, stress and fear, and the actual praxis of the officers in the street. Neighborhood characteristics (e.g., social capital, collective efficacy, and perceptions of procedural justice), also, may be intervening variables. Researchers may consider if these relationships are intervening variables between the effects of the practices and strategies on crime, officer safety, criminal investigations and criminal prosecutions.