This document, addressed to the President, Attorney General, and Congress, reports on the National Institute of Justice’s annual report on research, development, and evaluation of crime and crime prevention strategies for fiscal year 2019, and includes funding information for research programs.
In this report, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) provides details about research support for terrorism, firearm violence, gangs and gang violence, the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) program, white collar crimes such as health care and elder fraud, human trafficking, immigration and crime, and desistance from crime. The NIJ report also relays efforts to advance knowledge and tools regarding police operations and practices, to deliver police services more effectively and efficiently; correctional systems and re-entry initiatives; administration of justice, such as criminal court research and court-based program evaluation to identify tools, programs, and policies that satisfy criminal justice goals; tribal and crime research, which aim to provide accurate reporting of crime and violence on tribal lands, as well as reliable estimates of the scope of the problem, in order to identify barriers and potential solutions; forensic science research and development programs, which focus on basic and applied scientific research, and forensic capacity enhancement programs to enhance and assist publicly funded forensic laboratories. The document reports on the development of a victim outcome and satisfaction survey, to be used by service providers, to measure the impact of victim services; the efforts of a juvenile justice and delinquency prevention program that researches risk and protective factors that influence a youth’s involvement in the juvenile justice system; efforts to improve the criminal justice system, law enforcement, and missing persons resolution; steps taken to identify the criminal justice system’s research needs and opportunities; the continued funding of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service and National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), and other research initiatives. The report discusses outreach efforts such as the NIJ Journal, social media presence and engagement, and includes an appendix with financial data.