Research

Convening Police Leaders and Researchers to Learn Promising Practices and to Inform Research Agenda

Director Muhlhausen's prepared remarks at the NIJ-hosted Opioid Research Summit.

NIJ Director Muhlhausen

Good morning and welcome to Washington, DC. It’s a privilege to host you here today at the National Institute of Justice. I’m particularly honored to have the Attorney General and the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General with us...

Prepared remarks by NIJ Director David B. Muhlhausen given at CNA Executive Session "Innovative Approaches to Addressing Violent Crime."

Good morning, and thank you for having me here. On behalf of the National Institute of Justice, I’d like to congratulate CNA on the celebration of its 75th anniversary of service. It’s an honor to be here. I’m glad to have the opportunity to share some...

David B. Muhlhausen, Ph.D.

If you have heard me describing what NIJ does lately, you may have noticed that I have started sprinkling in references to the criminal and juvenile justice systems. There’s a good reason for that.

As of October 22, the juvenile justice research function that had been part of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has moved to NIJ...

American law enforcement officers put their lives on the line to keep their communities safe, and sometimes they pay the ultimate price. Every year, officers are killed in the line of duty. 2017 saw a decrease of more than 10 percent in line-of-duty deaths, from 143 in 2016 to 128 last year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Although the year-to-year...

Next week, law enforcement leadership from around the world will attend the annual conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), in Philadelphia. On Saturday, October 21, NIJ will host our 4th annual Saturday Session around the theme “What Works and What Matters in Policing.”

The session will include three panels bringing together law enforcement and academic experts to discuss officer safety, technology...

“Most of what we do has never been tested,” pointed out Dr. Angela Hawken, before going on to explain how her organization, BetaGov, is working to change that through hundreds of rapid-implementation randomized controlled trials (RCTs). BetaGov is an innovation hub out of New York University that supports public sector practitioners conducting evaluations of their programs. Dr. Hawken has a deep research background and is...

This year NIJ celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. This anniversary has been an opportunity to reflect on how far we’ve come. Fifty years ago, 911, hot spot policing, and license plate reader technology didn’t exist. We should be proud of how far we’ve come.

The concept of evidence-based practice has been on the rise over the past decade, but there is still a dramatic need for...

Thank you, and good morning. My name is Howard Spivak and I am the Principal Deputy Director of the National Institute of Justice, NIJ.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, NIJ is the research, development, and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. We use science to inform and advance criminal justice policies and practices across the country. To do this, we provide...

It’s a rare event to have so many influential parts of the government convened in one room, and I’m honored to have the opportunity to address you today.

My name is David Muhlhausen and I am the director of the National Institute of Justice, which is the research, development, and evaluation arm of the Department of Justice.

I’ve also been recently appointed by the Attorney...

Over my first six months as NIJ Director, I have made it a priority to engage with the criminal justice field at conferences, site visits, and other events. I’ve spoken face to face with police chiefs, forensic scientists, medical examiners, prosecutors, and many others working in criminal justice.

One of the most important things I have heard throughout...

As I discussed in my last Director’s Corner, NIJ is developing a number of exciting new solicitations this year. We have now started releasing our solicitations and will continue to do so over the coming months, so be sure to subscribe to get an email when one is released.

...if the results of research are never effectively communicated to criminal justice practitioners, the relevance and utility of that research is severely diminished.

Howard Spivak, May 2017

The value of criminal justice research is inextricably tied to the extent to which it informs and improves policy and practice. If a research project fails to address the field’s priority questions, or if the results of research are...

Thank you! Let me start with that because the real message here is one of thanks for what you do for your communities and the nation.

There is a lot that I would like to share about how NIJ can support your agency.

Keeping you safe…

At NIJ, we never lose sight of the fact that police work is inherently dangerous. Officers face a constant...