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De-escalation Training: What Works, Implementation Lessons, and Taking It to Scale; Plenary at the 2023 NIJ Research Conference

August 2023

Police use of force, while infrequently used, is a tremendous concern to public safety in the United States when officers employ it excessively or inappropriately, causing injury or death and eroding public trust in law enforcement. This plenary from the 2023 NIJ Research Conference describes the Integrating, Communications, Assessment, and Tactics (ICAT) de-escalation training program developed by the Police Executive Research Forum to guide officers in defusing critical incidents.

Inclusive Research: Engaging People Closest to the Issue Makes for Better Science & Greater Impact; 2023 NIJ Research Conference Plenary

August 2023

This panel will discuss what inclusive research is, how to conduct it, and what issues and challenges exist about engaging in it. “Inclusive research” has its history as a participatory research method designed to ensure people closest to the issue or problem under study are authentically engaged in the research process rather than simply being “research subjects.” While community-based participatory research has begun to take on greater prominence in the criminal justice realm, such efforts are largely confined to qualitative research inquiries.

NIJ’s Role Under the First Step Act

The First Step Act of 2018 (the Act) aims to reform the federal prison system and reduce recidivism.

NIJ plays a key role in major components of the Act and will assist the Attorney General in —

  • Assessing the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ existing risk and needs assessment system.
  • Developing and evaluating a...

NIJ 2021 NIJ Forecasting Challenge: Filtering Winners by Year, Variables, and Methods

NIJ's 2022 Recidivism Forecasting Challenge aimed to improve the ability to forecast recidivism using person- and place-based variables with the goal of improving outcomes for those serving a community supervision sentence.

As a condition of receiving their prize, each of the 25 winners[1] were asked to submit a research paper that describes which variables did and did not matter to the final forecasting model...