U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

Police chiefs

What Works in Probation and Parole

June 2009

How can we prevent reoffending and reduce costs? Research points to a number of solutions. At the Tuesday plenary, Judge Steven Alm from Hawaii will describe his successes with hard-core drug offenders. “Swift and sure” is his motto. West Virginia Cabinet Secretary James W. Spears will discuss the issues from his state's perspective, and Adam Gelb, Director of the Pew Charitable Trust's Public Safety Performance Project, will lend a national overview.

Director's Message: Advancing the Police Profession Through Science

Recent events across the country have made calls for criminal justice reform commonplace, and law enforcement in particular has been called upon to increase standards of performance and advance the field as a profession. At the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), we are committed to supporting law enforcement in their efforts to advance policing, and we strongly believe that science can play a pivotal role...

International Trends in Fighting Child Pornography

June 2009

This NIJ Conference Panel brings together American and European practitioners using innovative approaches to thwart the sharing of child pornography online. The panel will highlight two efforts. The first, which NIJ's International Center is evaluating, is a European multilateral project that teams criminal investigators with international nongovernmental organizations and Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to child pornography sites. The second effort seeks to prevent child pornographers from accessing credit card and other online payment systems.

What Is Research and Evaluation Evidence and How Can We Use It?

June 2010

This NIJ Conference Panel will explore the development and use of evidence-based policies, programs and technologies to improve effectiveness and efficiencies related to government. Through casual observation, practices and programs may appear to be effective, but under closer scrutiny the results may look much different.

Director's Message: Driving Innovation in Crime Forecasting

In order to strengthen justice in the United States, we need to apply the expertise of all scientific disciplines to better respond to the challenges that criminal justice practitioners face every day. One of those challenges is finding the most effective and efficient analytics tools to map and forecast crimes. While NIJ has been a long-time investor in research on mapping and analysis for public...

Understanding the Opioid Crisis Case-by-Case: Overdose Fatality Reviews in Wisconsin

May 2019
Mallory O’Brien, Assistant Professor, Medical College of Wisconsin, discusses the Wisconsin’s Overdose Fatality Review process, a joint effort of the State Departments of Justice and Public Health, that brings together all of the stakeholders to share specific case information to understand the overdose, the events leading up to it, and what opportunities the can uncover for actions that can be taken to address the overall crisis.

Two Police Chiefs Perspectives on the Opioid Crisis

May 2019
The opioid crisis has grown to one of the largest issues that American law enforcement face. Chiefs, Richard Biehl, Chief of Police, Dayton (Ohio) Police Department, and Brandon del Pozo, Chief of Police, Burlington (Vermont) Police Department offer a police executive's perspective on managing the response and balancing a public health and criminal justice approach.

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.