Multimedia Listing

Police use of force, while infrequently used, is a tremendous concern to public safety in the United States when officers employ it excessively or inappropriately, causing injury or death and eroding public trust in law enforcement. This plenary from the 2023 NIJ Research Conference describes the Integrating, Communications, Assessment, and Tactics (ICAT) de-escalation training program developed by the Police Executive Research Forum to guide officers in defusing critical incidents.

This panel will discuss what inclusive research is, how to conduct it, and what issues and challenges exist about engaging in it. “Inclusive research” has its history as a participatory research method designed to ensure people closest to the issue or problem under study are authentically engaged in the research process rather than simply being “research subjects.” While community-based participatory research has begun to take on greater prominence in the criminal justice realm, such efforts are largely confined to qualitative research inquiries.

No single criminal justice agency can promote desistance on its own. Partnerships across state, local, and federal agencies — along with the support of family and community stakeholders — are instrumental in supporting desistance from crime and reducing recidivism.

Law enforcement, courts, corrections, and community supervision agencies play a key role in the desistance process and reducing recidivism.

NIJ hosted a webinar to discuss under-researched aspects of reentry: expungement of criminal records and the impact of those records. This webinar includes a presentation of ongoing research projects examining the impact of legal aid for expungement and past research projects studying the accuracy and permanency of criminal records and the prevalence of collateral consequences of conviction. A Q&A session will conclude this webinar.

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 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.

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.

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.

This webinar, presented in four parts, provides a definition for the phrase “death in custody” and will describe all phases of custody. Additionally, the presenter will highlight case studies of deaths, including the five manners of deaths and a special focus on drug-related deaths. Lastly, he will provide a brief overview of the position paper issued in 2017 by the National Association of Medical Examiners (Academic Forensic Pathology, 2017). This paper outlined the best practices for examination, death determination, and manner of death classification.

This webinar, presented in four parts, provides a definition for the phrase “death in custody” and will describe all phases of custody. Additionally, the presenter will highlight case studies of deaths, including the five manners of deaths and a special focus on drug-related deaths. Lastly, he will provide a brief overview of the position paper issued in 2017 by the National Association of Medical Examiners (Academic Forensic Pathology, 2017). This paper outlined the best practices for examination, death determination, and manner of death classification.

This webinar, presented in four parts, provides a definition for the phrase “death in custody” and will describe all phases of custody. Additionally, the presenter will highlight case studies of deaths, including the five manners of deaths and a special focus on drug-related deaths. Lastly, he will provide a brief overview of the position paper issued in 2017 by the National Association of Medical Examiners (Academic Forensic Pathology, 2017). This paper outlined the best practices for examination, death determination, and manner of death classification.

This webinar, presented in four parts, provides a definition for the phrase “death in custody” and will describe all phases of custody. Additionally, the presenter will highlight case studies of deaths, including the five manners of deaths and a special focus on drug-related deaths. Lastly, he will provide a brief overview of the position paper issued in 2017 by the National Association of Medical Examiners (Academic Forensic Pathology, 2017). This paper outlined the best practices for examination, death determination, and manner of death classification.

In recent years, NIJ invested in several research projects to advance understanding and inform prevention of public mass shootings.

How prepared are schools for emergencies? Dr. Silva discusses her NIJ-funded research that looked at whether or not federal guidelines were reaching schools; the levels of emergency preparedness at the state, district, and school level; what we can learn from well-prepared schools, both best practices and challenges.

NIJ’s American Indian and Alaska Native Travel Scholarship Program Scholars discuss:

• Why they applied to the program.
• Which conference they chose to attend and why.
• Why representation of American Indian and Alaska Native is important in the field of criminal justice.
• What conference sessions they chose to attend and which they found most interesting.
• How they want to contribute to the fields of tribal and criminal justice.

How do you use data and science to measure program success?
John Wetzel, secretary of corrections, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and Grant Duwe, Ph.D., director of research and evaluation, Minnesota Department of Corrections explain how their agencies evaluate programs using data and science. Duwe details how the most effective programs provided by the Minnesota DOC have been those that focus on known risk factors for recidivism. 

What changes are you seeing in corrections and reentry?
Terri McDonald, chief probation officer, Los Angeles County Probation Department and John Wetzel, secretary of corrections, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections talk about recent changes in corrections and reentry. Wetzel elaborates on what the Pennsylvania DOC is facilitating with housing and how it individualizes its reentry programs. McDonald remarks on Los Angeles County’s systems approach to reentry and the idea of treating the whole person. 

Alix McLearen, Ph.D., acting assistant director, Reentry Services Division, Federal Bureau of Prisons and John Wetzel, secretary of corrections, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections discuss programs and services that their agencies offer to help individuals overcome the challenges encountered when leaving incarceration. These various programs and services address the individuals’ needs in areas such as physical and mental health, addiction, education, vocation, and life skills. 

Dayton (Ohio) Police Chief Richard Biehl and Burlington (Vermont) Police Chief Brandon del Pozo discuss the challenges of introducing institutional change across all of the agencies necessary to address the opioid crisis. They also explain the changes that they have made in their jurisdictions and the outcomes of those changes.