Criminal Justice Research and Public Policy in the United States

• NCJ Number: 155610
• Author(s): J Travis
• Date Published: January 1995
• Length: 19 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored

Annotation

The Director of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) discusses the use of criminal justice information, particularly research findings, to shape public policy on crime in the United States, as well as what NIJ has been doing recently and what could be done in the future to use advanced information technologies to disseminate criminal justice information.

Abstract

NIJ sponsors extensive criminal justice research, develops techniques for law enforcement, and supports promising programs as demonstration programs, and communicates the findings of studies to practitioners and policymakers. Increasingly, NIJ is using advanced information technology to do this. NIJ is committed to a multiyear research agenda that focuses on six goals and that is relevant to policy while also contributing to a general knowledge base. NIJ has used advanced information technologies to make the National Criminal Justice Reference Service accessible worldwide over the Internet and by modem, to encourage electronic discussion forums, to develop an international electronic library for the exchange of information on the rule of law, and to help integrate the United Nations Crime and Justice Information Network with other automated systems. In addition to making the technology more widely available, we need to make sure that the issues we address are relevant to policymaking and practice, disseminate information promptly, and target the policymaker audience through online discussion groups and subscription services. 18 reference notes