Social and Behavioral Science

NIJ's Eric Martin discusses the Institute's ongoing evaluation of the HOPE program for drug-involved offenders. 

This Crime File video considers the relationship between alcohol abuse and deviant behavior, with particular attention to driving under the influence (DUI); a panel discusses the effectiveness of legislation and treatment in reducing alcohol abuse.

This video, in the Crime File series, portrays a three-member panel discussing prison conditions in Texas both before and after a 1980 court order for the reform of prison management practices, implications of the Texas experience for prison management, and lessons for prison management to be drawn from the experiences of the experimental Federal correctional facility in Butner, N.C.

NIJ Conference
Interview
June 2012
Amy Farrell, Northeastern University

NIJ has funded a study looking at the barriers that local communities face identifying, investigating and prosecuting human trafficking cases under new state human trafficking laws.

In this interview, Amy Farrell discusses that study.

NIJ Conference

Interview

June 2011

John Laub, Director, National Institute of Justice, and Robert Sampson, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University

This video, in the Crime File series, presents background material on some U.S. Supreme Court decisions pertinent to the use of the exclusionary rule in sanctioning illegal police searches and seizures (Mapp v. Ohio and Shepherd v. Massachusetts); the moderator, James Q. Wilson, poses questions to Professor Yale Kamisar, University of Michigan Law School, and D. Lowell Jensen, Associate Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, designed to probe the controversial implications of the exclusionary rule.

This Crime File video shows three dramatized scenarios of police search and seizure tactics are critiqued as to their legality by a panel consisting of a police officer, a U.S. attorney, and a public defender.

This video, in the Crime File series, portrays a panel discussion of the nature and reliability of the Federal and California parole guidelines, justification for their use as sentencing guidelines, and moral and legal issues associated with their use.

Our mission is to help the justice system efficiently deliver outcomes for individuals regardless of wealth or status, and a necessary component of our work is strengthening and improving indigent defense. How we do that is of course varied, but one important aspect is the research that's needed to identify solutions to indigent defense, and that's why the solicitation is so important.

This Crime File video discusses the DARE program in Los Angeles attempts to teach elementary school children to turn away from drugs before they get to junior high school, where peer pressure is strong.

This video, in the Crime File series, portrays a panel discussion of the empirical evidence of the relationship between unemployment and crime as well as job programs for ex-offenders in New York City and Philadelphia.

NIJ has funded an evaluation of the Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification. The program, funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, provides funds to states automate and improve how victims are notified about information surrounding their case. In this interview, Seri Irazola discusses the evaluation.

This video, in the Crime File series, assesses the impact of police foot patrol in Newark, N.J., and Boston, Mass., and presents a panel discussion of the nature and effects of foot patrol as well as possibilities for improving it.

This Crime File video portrays three panelists contrasting indeterminate sentencing in Massachusetts, determinate sentencing in Minnesota, and discussing the existence and causes of sentencing disparity, sentencing factors, and racial discrimination in sentencing.

1990

This Crime File video presents a segment that describes the National Guard's role in interdicting drugs at the border in El Paso, Tex.; followed by a panel discussion of the nature and effectiveness of the military's role in drug law enforcement.

This video, in the Crime File series, provides an overview of the problem of prison overcrowding and considers various strategies for addressing it; three panelists discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various remedial strategies.

Numerous states and hundreds of municipalities have laws restricting the location of a convicted sex offender's residence. Little is known about the effectiveness of these restrictions. Do they keep children safer or give a false sense of safety? Some people suggest these laws are driven by media attention to a few cases. Others believe they are not grounded in research.