Justice Information Resource Network
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JIRN, a national non-profit organization, is a resource center for researchers, analysts, journalists and practitioners of justice research.
We provide reputable, nonpartisan research; learning programs tailored for justice researchers and research consumers who want to be informed; and opportunities for peers to meet, share perspectives and learn from one another.
With our partners, we conduct justice research. We provide comprehensive analyses of crucial issues and their effects across the entire justice system. We also analyze issues at the State & Federal level, providing thorough assessments of today's pressing societal challenges.
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Item A conceptual framework for measuring criminal justice success in responding to Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) crimes: Dataset inventory(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2022-06) Goan, Sarah; Snell, Elisabeth; Lugo-Graulich, Kris; Maryfield, Bailey; Maryfield, BaileyThe Measuring Success in the Criminal Justice System’s Response to Domestic/Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking pilot project was commissioned by the U.S. Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) to research, pilot, evaluate, and recommend outcome measures that OVW grantees can use to measure the success of law enforcement’s (LE) response to domestic/dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking (VAWA crimes). A full description of that project, including the conceptual model that guides the work, can be found in the final Conceptual Framework report. During the course of the project, the research team identified several key research questions that would lend precision and insight to high-priority concepts which are outlined in a separate research agenda. This dataset inventory provides an orientation to national and local data sources that OVW grantee sites engaged in law enforcement response activities might use to supplement their own data reporting, or that researchers and OVW could use to explore and track national trends related to these programs: • Supplement performance data reported to OVW; • Answer important local or national research questions about the impacts of VAWA-funded programs on crime incidence and improving victim well-being; and, • To understand important contextual factors that may impact these two objectives.Item A Conceptual Framework for Measuring Criminal Justice Success in Responding to Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Crimes: Executive Summary(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2022-06) Goan, Sarah; Snell, Elisabeth; Lugo-Graulich, Kris; Maryfield, Bailey; Howley, SusanIn 2020, the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) funded the Violence Against Women Act Measuring Effectiveness Initiative (VAWA MEI), which is a part of the Catherine E. Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy at the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service, and the Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA), to develop and pilot test a set of indicators for gauging success in the criminal justice system’s response to the VAWA crimes. Specifically, the purpose of this project was to develop a foundational, research-based conceptual framework that logically connects the interventions undertaken by OVW’s funded grantees to longer-term outcomes experienced by victims.Item A Conceptual Framework for Measuring Criminal Justice Success in Responding to Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Crimes: Final Results and Recommendations(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2022-06) Goan, Sarah; Snell, Elisabeth; Lugo-Graulich, Kris; Maryfield, Bailey; Howley, SusanThe Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), first authorized by the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) and amended (or continued) through subsequent, develops the nation’s capacity to reduce domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking (hereafter called “VAWA crimes”). They do so by administering 19 grant programs designed to strengthen services to victims and hold offenders accountable. Four of these are formula programs which OVW distributes to states accordingly, and 15 are discretionary grant programs for which OVW is responsible for creating program parameters, qualifications, eligibility, and deliverables in accordance with authorizing legislation. Each program has specific legislatively mandated purpose areas, such as training, funding law enforcement staff positions, providing victim services, establishing specialized units, and many more. To aid in measuring the effectiveness of these vast efforts, grantees report quantitative and qualitative data to OVW twice per year through a progress report. The data are cleaned and compiled after each reporting period, and summarized every two years into a Report to Congress. The progress reports currently capture a series of outputs (counted activities), such as types of community partners, frequency of meetings, task forces formed, people trained in various topics, victims served (or not), or the number of bed nights provided at transitional housing programs.Item A Conceptual Framework for Measuring Criminal Justice Success in Responding to Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Crimes: Indicators Matrix(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2022-06-01) Hannah BrintlingerThe Measuring Success in the Criminal Justice System's Response to Domestic/Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalkingpilot project was commissioned by the U.S. Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) to research, pilot, evaluate, and recommend outcome measures that OVW grantees can use to measure the success of law enforcement’s (LE) response to domestic/dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking (VAWA crimes). A full description of that project, including the conceptual framework that guides the work, can be found in the final Conceptual Framework report.This workbook contains the indicators and metrics that were tested and evaluated for recommendation to OVW. It includes both metrics that were ultimately recommended and not recommended at this time. The metrics that are not recommended at this time are not inherently poor metrics, but rather are not recommended due to a variety of factors, ranging from lack of access to the data, lack of tools, resources, and/or infrastructure to collent and report. Given the unique and locally-focused efforts and activities of OVW-funded grantees, we hope this list of indicators and metrics inspires grantees and helps them determine the most accurate and feasible metrics they can collect to demonstrate the impact of their work.Item A Conceptual Framework for Measuring Criminal Justice Success in Responding to Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Crimes: Literature Review(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2022-06) Goan, Sarah; Snell, Elisabeth; Lugo-Graulich, Kris; Maryfield, Bailey; Howley, SusanThe Measuring Success in the Criminal Justice System’s Response to Domestic/Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking pilot project was commissioned by the U.S. Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) to research, pilot, evaluate, and recommend outcome measures that OVW grantees can use to measure the success of law enforcement’s (LE) response to domestic/dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking (VAWA crimes). A full description of that project, including the conceptual model that guides the work, can be found in the accompanying Conceptual Framework report. In the first phase of the project, the research team conducted a review of peer-reviewed literature and practitioner resources to compile a list of measures that have been used to gauge the impact of law enforcement to VAWA crimes. The purpose of the review was to learn which measures have been used previously and to assess their strengths and weaknesses to inform discussions of the measures’ feasibility for grantee use. This review may also help identify gaps in how researchers and practitioners have measured pertinent outcomes. The results of the literature review contributed to the development of and provided the evidence base for a theory of change and logic model, including early identification and refinement of outcomes and measures for OVW.Item A conceptual framework for measuring criminal justice success in responding to Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) crimes: Model brief(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2022-06) Goan, Sarah; Snell, Elisabeth; Lugo-Graulich, Kris; Maryfield, Bailey; Smith Howley, SusanIn 2020, the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) the funded the Violence Against Women Act Measuring Effectiveness Initiative (VAWA MEI), which is part of the Catherine E. Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy at the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service, and the Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA), to develop and pilot test a set of indicators for gauging success in the criminal justice system’s response to the VAWA crimes. Specifically, the purpose of this project was to develop a research-based conceptual framework that logically connects the interventions being undertaken by OVW’s funded grantees to the longer term outcomes experienced by victims.1 At OVW’s direction, the project focused specifically on law enforcement’s response to VAWA crimes. In addition, the project identified key outcomes measures that can be collected and reported in a reliable manner to demonstrate the effectiveness of VAWA-funded programs. These recommended measures were rooted in research, generated from existing data when possible, and field-tested by a volunteer pool of grantees. This brief presents both the narrative and visual depiction of the finalized conceptual model.Item A conceptual framework for measuring criminal justice success in responding to Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) crimes: Research agenda(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2022-06) Goan, Sarah; Snell, Elisabeth; Lugo-Graulich, Kris; Maryfield, Bailey; Smith Howley, SusanThe Measuring Success in the Criminal Justice System’s Response to Domestic/Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking pilot project was commissioned by the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) to research, pilot, evaluate, and recommend outcome measures that OVW grantees can use to measure the success of law enforcement’s (LE) response to domestic/dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking (Violence Against Women Act crimes, or VAWA crimes). A full description of that project, including the conceptual model that guides the work, can be found in the final Conceptual Framework report. During this project, we identified several high priority concepts where further research could provide greater precision and insight, and that would be worthy of attention for all interested in the field of violence against women and, particularly, the law enforcement response to it. This document outlines a portfolio of research recommendations to answer these concepts.Item A formative evaluation & evaluability assessment of crime victim legal services(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2021-09) Lugo-Graulich, KrisA formative evaluation helps to clarify a program’s pur pose, processes, potential outcome measures, and read iness for process and outcome evaluation. This type of evaluation is commonly used as programs are developing but can also be used more generally to set the stage for the more rigorous evaluation designs.Item Adding geospatial context to big data with risk terrain modeling (RTM)(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 10/4/2017) Caplan, JoelRisk Terrain Modeling (RTM) is an approach to spatial risk assessment that makes connections among the activities and interactions of people at places. It diagnoses how features of the physical environment attract and influence certain behaviors at specific places. This diagnosis makes very accurate forecasts of events, such as crime, and it produces actionable information that is used to deploy resources, solve-problems, and reduce risks in transparent and sustainable ways. This webinar provides an overview of RTM as well as concrete examples of how it is used for risk governance, where the focus is on places, not people.Item Addressing the justice needs of crime victims/survivors: Examining the impact of a victim specialist program within a central New York police department(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2021) Butler, Shawn; VanDoren, Sarah; Pysnack-Weaver, Patricia; Marganski, AlisonThis project relies on quantitative and qualitative analysis to answer the following questions: (1) What does criminal victimization in Cayuga County look like pre- and post-implementation of the Law Enforcement Based Victim Specialist Program in the Auburn Police Department? This includes addressing: Who/what type of crime victims are coming into contact with police, and whether/how this has changed over time; (2) Has the integration of the Victim Specialist in the Auburn Police Department influenced victims' engagement with victim services and/or justice-related processes? This includes addressing: How victims are connected to services (did victims reach out to Auburn police and get connected to the Victim Specialist or were victims referred through Cayuga Counseling Services to the Specialist and police), whether/how number of victims served has changed over time, what services victims are using, whether they have participated in criminal justice proceedings, and whether there are gaps for certain groups in terms of not being served or not using services; and (3) What attitudes/beliefs exist among officers in the Auburn Police Department relating to their role in victim response? This includes gathering tools and working together on research design in preparation for learning about officers' perceptions of crime victims, victim services, and officer roles/responsibilities in assisting victims; preliminary information may be gathered. The approach will include secondary data analysis of crime reports and victim services data to examine victimization and victims who receive services. It will also include planning for future focus group discussions with law enforcement officers in order to gain insights about the agency's culture in terms of law enforcement officers' perceptions of their role in victim response.Item Advances in Human Trafficking Victim Identification(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2021-12-07) Horning, Avery (Amber); Jordenö, Sara; Lugo-Graulich, Kris; Souza, Karen; Bostwick, Lindsay; Maryfield, BaileyThis webinar presents findings from two forward-thinking studies that focus on human trafficking victim identification. This webinar should be of keen interest to investigators, victim services, health professionals, administrators of escort ad web scraping tools and databases, academics, and anyone interested in more precise tools to support the process of identifying human trafficking victims. The first study, “Human Trafficking Screening Tool for LGBTQAI Victims: Different Experiences, Risks, and Needs,” explores the requirements necessary for the development of an LGBTQAI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning/ queer, asexual, or intersex) trafficking victim identification tool via a series of key informant interviews with public health providers. The authors argue that this community faces dangers where they are uniquely susceptible to labor and sex trafficking. Due to their high-risk status, the LGBTQAI population requires an effective, specialized screening tool. This project is in the development phase, and later we will validate this tool in public health settings. The second study "Indicators of Sex Trafficking in Online Escort Ads" presents results from a study exploring the use of escort ads in U.S. sex trafficking investigations. It tests whether many commonly-used indicators or "signs" of trafficking indeed indicate a higher likelihood that the individual being advertised is a trafficking victim versus an independent person advertising commercial sex. Its unique contribution is that it tests indicators being used in the field against a counterfactual (known case outcomes) in order to identify differences in the presence of various indicators between ads known to be part of a trafficking case and those known to be part of a case that involves consensual sex work, but not trafficking. Both projects have resulted in key insights that can be used to better identify individuals most at risk of human trafficking.Item Advances in State-level Crime and Victimization Surveys: Lessons from the Oregon Crime Victimization Survey(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2021-07-29) Haas, Stephen; Jans, Matt; ZuWallack, Randy; McAliser, SiobhanState and local crime victimization surveys can yield powerful data for estimating the prevalence and incidence of victimization. However, a significant challenge remains for researchers seeking to identify the most valid, reliable, and cost-effective methods for sampling households and gathering survey responses. This webinar describes the use of three alternative forms of sampling and data collection modes using Oregon’s first statewide crime victimization survey as an illustration. The Oregon Crime Victimization Survey (OCVS) applied a mixed-mode data collection strategy combining computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) with a “text-to-web” option and mail “push-to-web” approach. This allows for the direct comparison of three distinct samples and modes of data collection (i.e., random-digit dialing (RDD) CATI, RDD text-to-web, and address-based sampling (ABS) web) on crime victimization estimates, sampling error, response rates, efficiency, and costs. This webinar discusses the potential advantages and implications of a dual-frame and multimode approach and the importance of methodological choice for obtaining state-level crime victimization estimates.Item An analysis of variables affecting the clearance of homicides: A multistate study(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 1999-10) Wellford, Charles; Cronin, JamesIn recent years, the ability of law enforcement to make arrests in crimes would appear to have significantly diminished. This is especially true for homicide: from 1980 to 1996, the clearance rate for homicides decreased more than 7 %. While there has been a decrease in clearance rates nationally, some cities have high clearance rates for total crime and for homicides, and others have much lower rates than the average. Analysis of clearance rates from 1980 through 1994 shows that clearance rates in cities have remained very stable: those cities that are high in total clearance and high in homicide rates have remained consistently so throughout this period, as have cities which are high-low, low-high, and low-low. This stability suggests the existence of persistent factors that affect law enforcement agencies’ ability to clear homicide cases. The purpose of this study was to identify these factors by comparing the characteristics of solved and unsolved homicide cases. This study examined 798 homicides that occurred in four large U.S. cities during 1994 and 1995. These cities were selected to maximize variation on homicide and total index crime clearance rates measured from 1980 through 1993. The cities include one that had relatively low homicide and total index crime clearance rates; another that had high homicide clearance rates and low total clearance rates; a third that had a high total clearance rate, but low homicide; and a fourth that had high total clearance and high homicide crime clearance.Item An Introduction to Evidece-Based Practices - Executive Summary(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2014-04) Orchowsky, StanThe movement toward the use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) has been sweeping the criminal justice community in recent years. The purpose of this briefing paper is to provide policymakers with an introduction and overview of the key concepts and issues associated with the identification and use of EBPs in criminal justice. The briefing provides a brief history of the evidence-based movement, discusses what is meant by evidence and where evidence comes from, identifies sources for information on EBPs, discusses issues associated with implementing EBPs, and addresses the question of what to do when there is no evidence for a particular program or practice.Item An introduction to evidence-based practices(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2014-04) Orchowsky, StanThe movement toward the use of evidence-based practices (EBPs) has been sweeping the criminal justice community in recent years. The purpose of this briefing paper is to provide policymakers with an introduction and overview of the key concepts and issues associated with the identification and use of EBPs in criminal justice. The briefing provides a brief history of the evidence-based movement, discusses what is meant by evidence and where evidence comes from, identifies sources for information on EBPs, discusses issues associated with implementing EBPs, and addresses the question of what to do when there is no evidence for a particular program or practice.Item An overview of new psychoactive substances(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2016) Crisp, KellyThe proliferation of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) has impacted communities across the United States. This webinar will help increase your knowledge of NPS and the local and national responses to curb the use and sale of NPS. Specifically, it will describe the District of Columbia's Strategy for Tackling this Public Health Challenge.Item Annotative Bibliography: Research on the Needs of Non-Fatal Gun Violence Victims(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2021-08) Vincent, Neil J; Robinson, Aileen; Hund, Kevin; Grays, ShaharazadThe Chicago Police Department is currently implementing the Crime Victims Advocacy and Support Pilot Project (CVASP) in three police districts in Chicago. The three districts have high rates of gun violence resulting in hundreds of nonfatal gun violence victims. The CVASP's program goals are: (1) to provide timely trauma-informed crisis services to nonfatal gun violence victims; (2) increase victim participation in the criminal justice system; (3) decrease the severity of PTSD symptoms; (4) improve functioning of nonfatal gun violence victims; and (5) provide community referrals to support victims. This project will apply an exploratory, mixed-method research design to examine the immediate, comprehensive needs of nonfatal gun violence survivors. Analysis of case record assessments completed by CVASP advocates, interviews with CVASP advocates, and focus groups with nonfatal, gun violence victims will allow the project researchers to conduct an in-depth examination of presenting needs of nonfatal gun violence victims. Findings will inform CVASP advocates about the prevailing needs of the victims they are serving and inform program stakeholders about gaps in services provided and potential services that need to be developed. Additionally, CVASP stakeholders will be able to revise their intake/assessment documents to include needs they did not anticipate and understand better the needs they did find.Item Annual Statistical Analysis Center Survey: 2022 Results(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2023-07-21) Brick, Bradley T., PhDThis report presents the findings from the 2022 SAC survey administered online between December 2022 and January 2023. Invitations to participate were sent to all 50 designated SACs in each state and the District of Columbia (Texas did not have a designated SAC at the time of the survey), and responses were received from 44 SAC Directors, Interim Directors, or designees.Item Approaches to Assessing Juvenile Justice Program Performance(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2004-07) Poulin, MaryThe purpose of this briefing is to focus on different methods of assessing program performance that comply with the JJDPA (Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention) of 2002.Item Approaches to Examining Long-Term Recidivism of Sex Offenders(Justice Research and Statistics Association, 2020-11-17) Shaler, George; Sampson, Lisa; Durose, Matt; Landon, Matt; Cole, Katrina; Rydberg, Jason; McGarrell, EdmundRecent studies by the Bureau of Justice Statistics have suggested that arrest trends can persist for over a decade beyond release from prison and suggest that typical three- to five-year follow-up periods may provide an incomplete picture of recidivism. In this panel, the Statistical Analysis Centers of Washington, Michigan, Maine and Massachusetts offer a look into the long-term recidivism trends of sex offenders in their states and highlight trends that match or diverge from non-sex offenders and data from the national level.