Resource Results
Justice policymakers must make tough decisions with limited resources. Any number of investments, whether in law enforcement, corrections, probation—or even programs outside the justice system, such as early childhood education—can promote public safety. The critical question is which choices produce the greatest benefits.
Crime analysis has become a common feature of U.S. law enforcement agencies. According to a 2008 Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) survey, 89 percent of responding agencies reported having staff whose primary or secondary duty was crime analysis, and the number of analysts has likely increased since then.
This paper, part of the series of papers resulting from Harvard’s Executive Session on Policing and Public Safety, examines the use of social media by police departments in the aftermath of the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon. The paper describes the Boston Police Department’s (BPD’s) response to the bombing and how its use of various types of social media enhanced the investigation, kept the public informed, and brought together various law enforcement agencies to identify and… Read More
The evaluation’s overall conclusion is that the PSN gun initiative had a small but statistically significant effect in reducing gun violence in the target area during the 39 weeks of observation. There was no similar pattern of shootings during this period in other areas of this jurisdiction; however, the evaluation also shows the difficulty of maintaining reductions in gun violence after intensive enforcement activity has subsided. The PSN model involved five key components.
The widespread adoption of community policing across the nation has increased the interest in law enforcement agencies’ conducting community surveys. Many police engaged in community policing want to know “how we're doing” from the citizens’ perspective. Community surveys provide descriptive information that goes beyond the traditional measures of police workload, arrest activity, reported offenses, and calls for service.
This joint effort between the Office of Victims of Crime (OVC) and the International Association of Chiefs of Police is focused on collecting strategies, guides, resources, and training related to victimization and victim services. The website provides information for criminal justice practitioners focused on improving their response to victims of crime.
As today's police executives strive to maintain the progress in reducing crime while serving as effective agents of change, many are taking on a new challenge: applying the concepts of "legitimacy" and "procedural justice" as they apply to policing. Legitimacy and procedural justice are measurements of the extent to which members of the public trust and have confidence in the police, believe that police are honest and competent, think that police treat people fairly and with respect, and… Read More
This paper discusses the concepts of legitimacy and procedural justice in the context of police leadership. In any given community, residents will have opinions about whether their local police act “legitimately.” These opinions may be based on a particular encounter a resident had with the police, such as a traffic stop, or on larger policy issues. And these opinions often vary from one subgroup of the community to another.
[The Cost-Benefit Knowledge Bank's] new white paper, Advancing the Quality of Cost-Benefit Analysis for Justice Programs, was developed to help guide analysts through the methodological challenges of conducting justice-related CBAs, such as: Selecting perspectives to include in justice-related CBAs; Predicting and measuring the impacts of justice programs and policies; Monetizing (placing dollar values on) those initiatives; Dealing with uncertainty; and Making cost-benefit studies… Read More
As part of the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation program, BJA has prepared a series of research reviews on topics important to law enforcement. These reviews summarize findings from notable publications evaluating data-driven, evidence-based practices in law enforcement agencies. This review describes findings from offender-based policing strategies, including reentry programs.
