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Guardianship Abuse: Bad Apples or Tip of the Iceberg?

January 2025

When cases involving high-profile individuals, like Britney Spears, make national headlines, issues surrounding guardianship and conservatorship take center stage. But after those specific cases resolve and national interest fades, the systemic issues remain. We have very little data on how the guardianship system is actually working, and the scope and prevalence of guardianship abuse remains unclear. We don’t know how many individuals suffer abuse under guardianship. We don’t know to what extent guardianship, when properly executed, improves the lives of those it’s intended to serve.

NIJ FY25 Research and Evaluation on Drugs and Crime: Nexus with Firearms and Violence

Closing Date
Grants.gov Deadline
Application JustGrants Deadline
This funding opportunity seeks applications for rigorous applied research on drugs and crime to inform the development of evidence-based tools, practices, and policies for state, tribal, and local law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies that address drug trafficking, drug markets, and drug-related violence. The FY25 NOFO research priority is firearms—the intersection of drug crimes and firearm offenses in trends, interdiction, and prosecution, and efforts...

DNA 101

August 2023

This training was presented as a part of the National Center on Forensics conference at George Mason University on August 8th, 2023. In this session, FBI Forensic DNA Examiner Amanda Bakker introduces all the most vital concepts of DNA analysis and evidence. For those who aren’t DNA analysts but work in tangential fields such as law enforcement and criminal justice, this session will be incredibly useful for understanding topics such as what DNA is, how it transfers, how it is collected, and how it is analyzed.

NIJ FY25 Research and Evaluation of Policing Practices

Closing Date
Grants.gov Deadline
Application JustGrants Deadline
This funding opportunity seeks rigorous, applied evaluative research on: (1) police conduct and police-community interactions; (2) officer safety, health, and wellness; (3) criminal investigations; and (4) alternative traffic enforcement models. NIJ also welcomes investigator-initiated proposals in other policing topics.

Overview of Forensic Anthropology

Forensic anthropologists examine skeletal human remains to assess age at death, sex, stature, and ancestry; identify injuries; and estimate the time since death to provide investigators with information that can assist in identifying a decedent.

Forensic odontologists examine the development, anatomy, and any restorative dental corrections of the teeth, such as fillings or extractions, to make a comparative identification of a person.

Bones and teeth are...