Multimedia Listing

Reauthorized in 2018, the Second Chance Act (SCA) aims to reduce recidivism and improve outcomes for people returning from state and federal prisons, local jails, and juvenile facilities through the provision of federal grants. During this panel, National Institute of Justice-funded researchers will detail two ongoing evaluations of the SCA grant program:

1. An evaluation of the effectiveness of the SCA grant program per Title V of the First Step Act.
2. A longitudinal examination of the long-term impacts of the SCA program.

This webinar will explore the prevalence of strangulation in sexual assault cases, including considerations for evidence collection and supporting victims. This webinar was hosted by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on April 14, 20222

This webinar discusses the impact that the pandemic has had on the physical and emotional wellness of employees in the laboratory setting and will focus on personnel issues that workplaces may experience following the pandemic. Topics that will be covered include supervising employees working in a remote environment, implementing hybrid working programs, and bringing employees back into the office.

This webinar will review the features and advantages of the Idaho State Police Forensic Services’ freely available sexual assault kit evidence tracking system.

This webinar was hosted by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on April 7, 2022.

Over several decades, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has made significant contributions to the field of reentry, specifically what works for whom and when. In recent years, however, the global pandemic has made it increasingly difficult to conduct research on and with populations involved with the justice system. During this time, many researchers assessing various justice-related outcomes were unable to continue their inquiries as planned due to a lack of access to their populations of interest, forcing many to pivot and rethink their research designs.

This webinar will focus on the journey through medical marijuana and the decriminalization of hemp with legalization on the horizon in the state of Ohio. We will also focus on the impact that legalization has made in the state of Colorado over the past 10 years. The journey between these two states will demonstrate the challenges and needs for a shift in the analytical approach.

This webinar was hosted by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on April 5, 2022, as part of the ASCLD Train the Director Webinar Series.

The NIST Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) for Forensic Science advances the mission of strengthening forensic practice by facilitating the development of technically sound, science-based standards through a formal standard developing organization (SDO) process. Although, there are numerous challenges facing laboratory managers in implementing standards, OSAC has observed scores of forensic science service providers implement standards listed on the OSAC Registry and has gathered helpful guidance from the experiences of those laboratories.

NIJ is the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice.

We are dedicated to improving knowledge and understanding of crime and justice issues through science. We provide objective and independent knowledge and tools to inform the decision-making of the criminal and juvenile justice communities to reduce crime and advance justice, particularly at the state and local levels.

This webinar is designed to provide a peek behind the curtain of cosmetics, specifically those applied to the face. The presenter will provide an overview of common cosmetic ingredients, including the typical usage levels and their purpose in these products. The presenter will also discuss various analytical approaches and limitations to the analysis of cosmetic products and their individual components.

This webinar was hosted by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on February 17, 2022. 

The FBI Laboratory conducted a comprehensive study known as the National Footwear Database Evaluation. The purpose of the study was to determine the feasibility of developing and implementing a national footwear database system to generate criminal intelligence for law enforcement and serve as a tool for forensic science researchers. This webinar will highlight the team's findings, conclusions, and recommendations. T

his webinar was hosted by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on February 15, 2022.

The Phoenix Police Department (PPD) made a department-wide cultural change in evidence handling, screening, and processing strategies in support of Crime Gun Intelligence Center goals. In addition, the Firearms Section of the PPD Crime Laboratory has validated and implemented a 3D topographical Virtual Comparison Microscopy (VCM) system. The presenters will discuss how the addition of 3D VCM technology in the laboratory and the incorporation of 3D technologies into the NIBIN system has bolstered their ability to provide the best results possible to our customers.

This webinar features a discussion of previously published research on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 Booker decision - which effectively transformed the United States Sentencing Guidelines from a mandatory, to an advisory, system. The presentation will address selected research findings from the last 15 years. Individual participants will briefly review their previous research findings with particular attention paid to the analytic methods used.

Although iron-based metals are popular for making critical parts of firearms, they are susceptible to corrosion or rust. There is currently little research on how long a firearm can be left to rust before an identification is no longer possible. This project evaluates the effects of rust on the common working surfaces of Glock and Smith & Wesson Sigma firearms.

This project is designed to connect tribal partners to ME/C offices to facilitate successful disposition protocols for non-forensically significant Native American remains that are compliant with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA).

In this full thematic panel, renowned experts will present a series of papers summarizing the newest findings of NIJ-funded research projects on criminal offenses with firearms in urban areas. Researchers used various criminological and other theories, including routine activity theory, socio-ecological and socio-environmental perspectives, and advanced mixed-study methods, including surveys and spatio-temporal designs, to produce scientific evidence to inform practice.

Mass public shootings continue to threaten communities in the United States, yet research on this criminal phenomenon is limited. In this full thematic panel, renowned experts will present a series of research projects summarizing NIJ-funded research projects’ newest findings on public mass shootings. The discussion will focus on NIJ’s investment to address the phenomenon of mass shootings through innovative study approaches to advance our understanding of mass shootings and inform prevention efforts. The implications of this research to criminal justice will also be discussed.

Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is a DOJ-sponsored initiative to reduce violent crime, particularly gun crime, by fostering cooperation by criminal justice agencies and local partners to develop and implement strategic approaches.

Most scholars would agree that desistance from crime – the process of ceasing engagement in criminal activities – is normative. However, there is variability in the literature regarding the definition and measurement of desistance, the signals of desistance, the age at which desistance begins, and the underlying mechanisms that lead to desistance. Even with considerable advances in the theoretical understanding of desistance from crime, there remain critical gaps between research and the application of that research to practice.