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Officer safety

Ballistic Resistant Body Armor and the NIJ Mark

The NIJ Compliance Testing Program’s (NIJ CTP) goal is to improve criminal justice practitioners’ confidence about the products they own and about how those products meet applicable requirements and perform as expected. To achieve this goal, the NIJ CTP must evaluate products independently and communicate the evaluation results to practitioners.

Although the NIJ CTP maintains a list of compliant products for practitioners to reference, additional...

Research and Evaluation in Safety, Health, and Wellness in Criminal Justice System, Fiscal Year 2020

Closing Date
With this solicitation, NIJ seeks applications for funding of multidisciplinary research projects addressing any of these five topics: (1) Resiliency and Recovery of Law Enforcement agencies from Singular, Extreme Traumatic Events; (2) Impact of Organizational Stressors on Officer Health and Wellness; (3) Effects of Pre-Career Interventions and Subsequent Reminders in Modulating Mental, Physical, and Social Responses to Stressors in Law Enforcement Officers; (4) Community Hostility...

Don't Jump the Shark: Understanding Deterrence and Legitimacy in the Architecture of Law Enforcement

November 2010

Deterrence theory dominates the American understanding of how to regulate criminal behavior but social psychologists' research shows that people comply for reasons that have nothing to do with fear of punishment; they have to do with values, fair procedures and how people connect with one another. Professor Meares discussed the relevance of social psychologists' emerging theory to legal theory and practice and how deterrence and emerging social psychology theories intertwine.

NIJ's 50th Anniversary - Looking Back, Looking Forward

August 2018
NIJ’s 50th anniversary is an opportunity to reflect on how far the Institute has come, as well as its direction and priorities moving forward. In this Research for the Real World event, panelists will speak to the history and future of the Institute, drawing from decades of experience working for and closely with NIJ. Two Former NIJ Directors will reflect on their days heading the agency and their observations on how the agency has changed over time.

NIJ FY18 Understanding the Impacts of Policing Strategies and Practices

Closing Date

With this solicitation, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) seeks proposal for research and/or evaluation projects to examine the impact of police crime-reduction practices and strategies on four variables. Those are: (1) crime, (2) officer safety, (3) criminal investigations, and (4) criminal prosecutions. NIJ will accept proposals for research examining person- or place-based practices and strategies. NIJ is particularly interested in examining the practice of...

NIJ FY18 Research and Evaluation on Decision-making

Closing Date

NIJ seeks proposals for research and evaluation projects to identify the combination of attributes specific to the individual law enforcement officer that causes them to make the decisions governing their actions during encounters with the public. Specifically, NIJ is interested in identifying those combinations of attributes tending to lead to successful encounter outcomes; as well as those tending to lead to unsuccessful outcomes. NIJ is...