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Social and Behavioral Science

Director's Message: Developing a Comprehensive Response to Human Trafficking

As Attorney General Lynch has repeatedly said: human trafficking is modern day slavery. This grievous practice exists in contemporary society, and the U.S. is unfortunately no exception. National and worldwide campaigns have raised awareness and attracted attention and resources to this problem, but many questions remain. We still need to know more, for example, about how best to prevent and respond to human...

What Works in Offender Supervision - Panel at the 2009 NIJ Conference

June 2009

This NIJ Conference Panel highlights findings from NIJ projects that evaluated strategies to enhance the supervision of offenders in the community. Researchers discuss the effectiveness of fair, swift and certain sanctions for high-risk probationers in the Hawaii HOPE program. Panelists also provide empirical evidence on the effectiveness of electronic monitoring — including the use of GPS tracking — for medium- and high-risk offenders on supervision and upon completion of their supervision sentence.

Transcript
What Works in Offender Supervision - Panel at the 2009 NIJ Conference
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1 of 4: Marlene Beckman, Senior Policy Advisor to the Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. , 2 of 4: Bill Bales, Associate Professor, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University , 3 of 4: The Honorable Steven S. Alm, Judge, First Circuit Court, Honolulu, Hawaii , 4 of 4: Angela Hawken, Assistant Professor of Economics and Policy Analysis, School of Public Policy, Pepperdine University, Malibu, Calif.

Domestic Violence Research 15 Years After VAWA

June 2010

Since the passage of the Violence Against Women Act, a majority of the more than 250 research and evaluation studies funded by NIJ examined domestic violence issues. This research has been collected in the Compendium of Research on Violence Against Women, which includes an abstract of each grant and the results of completed studies.

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Domestic Violence Research 15 Years After VAWA
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1 of 4: Domestic Violence Research 15 Years After VAWA , Bernard Auchter, National Institute of Justice , 2 of 4: Domestic Violence Research 15 Years After VAWA , Claire M. Renzetti, Endowed Chair, Center for Research on Violence Against Women and Professor of Sociology, University of Kentucky , 3 of 4: Domestic Violence Research 15 Years After VAWA , Connie Beck, Associate Professor, Psychology, Policy and Law Program, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson (mp3, 170 MB) , 4 of 4: Domestic Violence Research 15 Years After VAWA , Barbara Hart, Director of Law and Policy, Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine, Portland

Sex Offenders in the Community: Post-Release, Registration, Notification and Residency Restrictions

May 2010

The management of sexual offenders in the community post-release is an issue of increasing concern to law enforcement, policymakers and the public. In recent years, efforts to strengthen registration and notification have been enhanced. At the same time, comparatively little attention has been paid to related matters, such as how residency restrictions may impact offenders' efforts to find stable work and living arrangements once they are released from prison, whether rates of recidivism have changed, and whether these policies increase the safety of potential victims.

Transcript
Sex Offenders in the Community: Post-Release, Registration, Notification and Residency Restrictions
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1 of 4: Sex Offenders in the Community: Post-Release, Registration, Notification and Residency Restrictions, Karen J. Bachar, National Institute of Justice , 2 of 4: Sex Offenders in the Community: Post-Release, Registration, Notification and Residency Restrictions, Elizabeth Letourneau, Assistant Professor, Medical University of South Carolina , 3 of 4: Sex Offenders in the Community: Post-Release, Registration, Notification and Residency Restrictions, Kristen M. Zgoba, Research Scientist, New Jersey Department of Corrections , 4 of 4: Sex Offenders in the Community: Post-Release, Registration, Notification and Residency Restrictions, Alisa Klein, Public Policy Consultant, Association for the Treatment of Sex Abusers

NIJ’s Intramural Research Initiative

A strong, active science staff is the foundation of a federal science agency, and the Institute is home to a well-trained, multidisciplinary science staff with experience and advanced training in numerous fields relevant to issues of safety and justice. Such expertise is essential in guiding the Institute’s research portfolios; developing new programs of research that capture the lessons learned from previous research; laying out a...

Crime File: Drug Testing

January 1986

In this Crime File video, James Q. Wilson moderates a panel of three (Jay Carver, Director of the D.C. Pretrial Services Program; Elizabeth Symmonds, attorney with the Capitol Area Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union; and Dr. Eric Wish, a drug researcher)

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Crime File: Heroin

January 1984

1984

This video, in the Crime File series, portrays a panel discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of criminalizing heroin use, with particular attention to contrasting the British and American systems for controlling heroin use.

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Crime File: Drug Trafficking

January 1986

In this Crime File video, James Q. Wilson moderates a panel of three (Mark Kleiman, Harvard University Research Fellow; Mark Moore, Harvard University Professor; and John Lawn, Administrator of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency), this team discusses Federal and local enforcement strategies against drug trafficking.

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