Advancing Science — Newsletter from the NIJ Director

I want to extend a tremendous thank you to everyone who helped make last week’s NIJ 2024 National Research Conference a smashing success. I am full of gratitude for the planning and logistics teams, the staff participating in panels and presentations, and each attendee who spent time with us at the conference. If you attended, please complete a brief evaluation on your conference experience. It will help us make the next one even better!

COMPLETE EVALUATION

It just so happened that National Forensic Science Week occurred the same week as the NIJ Conference! We’ve invested over $300M since 2009 to strengthen the forensic science knowledge base by funding evidence-based research, enabling R&D for cutting-edge technologies, and supporting the training, tools, and resources necessary for practitioners across the field. We put together a collection of recent NIJ publications highlighting these investments.

ACCESS RESOURCES

We’ve been busy publishing several new research articles over the past few weeks. Here’s one I'm very proud of. This intramural research effort by Drs. Kyleigh Clark-Moorman and Danielle Crimmins explores alternative strategies to traffic enforcement. These strategies are designed to both reduce police resource burdens and address racial disparities and negative public safety outcomes during traffic-related incidents. Importantly, the article highlights the data and research needed to document the impact and potential unintended consequences of these nascent policies. Highly recommend giving this a read.

REVIEW FINDINGS

Attention First Step Act (FSA) watchers: NIJ has released its first report reviewing and validating the Standardized Prisoner Assessment for Reduction in Criminality (SPARC-13). SPARC-13 is designed to assess the needs of people confined in Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities with the goal of aligning individuals’ needs to programs and treatment. This is an essential component of the FSA. This assessment of SPARC-13 includes a review of its development, implementation, and use, and it provides insights to support future work with the tool to better serve the needs of those in custody.

REVIEW ASSESSMENT

Jillian Barnas — Safety, Health, and Wellness Research Advisor

Jillian Barnas, Ph.D., joins NIJ as a safety, health, and wellness research advisor in NIJ’s Office of Technology and Standards. Jill served as the human services, public safety, and corrections policy fellow at the MOST Policy Initiative and served the Missouri State Legislature as a non-partisan scientific expert. Most recently, she was an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) science and technology policy fellow here at NIJ. Jill worked on several projects involving health and wellness, including leading an intramural research project in partnership with Oregon’s Department of Public Safety, Standards, and Training to understand the association between physical performance and academy performance on promotion-related job metrics and career longevity in law enforcement.

Taylor Robinson – Social Science Research Analyst

Taylor Robinson, Ph.D., joins us as a social science research analyst in NIJ’s Office of Violence and Victimization Prevention. She is the second new subject matter expert joining us this year for the violence against women, victims of crime, older adults abuse, and tribal crime, justice, and victimization portfolios at NIJ. Her research areas of interest include gender-based violence and victimization, hate crime victimization, environmental justice, and service responses to minority victims and marginalized/ underserved communities. She most recently served as a John R. Lewis National Racial Equity Social Justice Fellow with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, where she conducted research on reentry, environmental victimization and justice, and economic policies. In her prior role at the Crime Victims’ Institute, Taylor conducted victimology research and produced several reports and fact sheets.