National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

In episode three of our Applications of Forensic Science for Human Identification season, Just Science sat down with Lori Bruski and Amy Jenkinson, two research public health analysts at RTI International to discuss inter-agency efforts to compile crime, missing persons and decedent information and comprehensive databases. In the digital age, criminal justice information can be uploaded into databases and organized in a searchable, centralized location, making it more accessible than ever.

In April 2018, the Golden State Killer, Joseph DeAngelo was arrested. NIJ support helped lead to his arrest, and in the aftermath of the arrest, NIJ Social Science Analyst Eric Martin was among those tasked with finding other cases NIJ helped law enforcement solve. Eric joins the show to talk about some of those cases, and answer some broader questions about serial killers: What is a serial killer? Are they on the rise? How do we know how many serial killers are currently active?

Stacy Lee Reynolds and Christine (Tina) Crossland continue their discussion of tribal crime, justice, and safety, including how Native American persons experience crime victimization at higher rates than non-Native people and the jurisdictional complexities in responding to tribal crime, justice, and safety. Read the transcript.

Listen to the first half of Stacy and Tina’s discussion.

Reading and Resources from NIJ

Tribal-Researcher Capacity Building Grants