Crime and its impact on public safety, public health, and economics are universal concerns. RAND research has informed criminal justice policy development at local, state, and national levels in the United States and Europe, particularly in the areas of juvenile crime, violence, and substance abuse, and has explored a range of topics from the drug trade and "insider" crimes to sexual assault and the cost-effectiveness of crime prevention.
News Release
Organized crime increasingly is involved in the piracy of feature films, with syndicates active along the entire supply chain from manufacture to street sales. While crime syndicates have added piracy to their criminal portfolios, the profits from film piracy also have been used on occasion to support the activities of terrorist groups.
Commentary
On his first day in office, President Barack Obama issued a dramatic series of executive orders intended to symbolize a change of direction in America's "war" on terrorism. Despite the headlines these orders generated, a more significant policy shift may have been the one signaled the week before his inauguration, writes Benjamin Runkle.
Research Brief
A detailed investigation into the connections between intellectual-property piracy, organized crime, and terrorism, including case studies of criminal and terrorist groups and recommendations for reducing the demand for and supply of pirated goods.
Report
The first multi-dimensional effort to quantify the disparities faced by African-American and Latino boys and men in California across a broad spectrum of health and social factors provides a disquieting outlook for their lives.
News Release
The economic cost of methamphetamine use in the United States reached $23.4 billion in 2005, including the burden of addiction, premature death, drug treatment and many other aspects of the drug.
Report
Business improvement districts (BIDs) collect assessments and invest in such activities as place promotion, street cleaning, and public safety. This report examines BID activities and their impact on crime and youth violence in Los Angeles.
Report
The first national estimate of the economic cost of methamphetamine considers burdens of addiction, early death, drug treatment, lost productivity, crime and criminal justice, health care, production and environmental hazards, and child endangerment.
Report
The involvement of organized crime and terrorist groups worldwide in counterfeiting products to finance their activities, with case studies of film piracy as an illustrative example.
Report
The summary discusses some of the greatest socioeconomic, health, safety, and school readiness disparities for boys and men of color in California and reviews strategies to reduce disparities, including effective programs, practices, and policies.
Journal Article
The authors examined the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and perceived needs for legal, social, and job services among a prospective cohort of 210 pregnant Latinas. IPV was associated with needing social and legal services at most time points. Women with recent IPV experiences reported greater service needs than women with more remote IPV experiences, who in turn reported greater need than women without IPV experiences. The authors conclude that IPV may be associated with ongoing perceived needs for social and legal services among Latina perinatal patients.
Journal Article
Using a national longitudinal sample of nursing homes residents we examine whether physical restraint use contributes to subsequent physical or psychological health decline.
Journal Article
The Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act (SACPA), implemented statewide in California in July 2001, mandates drug treatment rather than incarceration for certain nonviolent drug offenders.
Journal Article
Research has shown that, when women and/or their partners are involved in substance use, women's risk for intimate partner violence (IPV) is higher.
Journal Article
The presence of street gangs has been hypothesized as influencing overall levels of violence in urban communities through a process of gun-drug diffusion and crosstype homicide.
Journal Article
This article examines data from 2,575 high school students who participated in a teen-dating violence intervention study. The majority of participants were Latino (91%), and the sample was nearly evenly split with respect to gender (51% female). Items from two scales (boy-on-girl violence; girl-on-boy violence) reflecting teens' attitudes about dating violence were calibrated with the graded item response theory (IRT) model and evaluated for differential item functioning (DIF) by gender. Results support the use of IRT scores that account for DIF to minimize measurement error and improve inferences about gender differences in attitudes about dating violence
Journal Article
Few studies have applied the life course perspective to the study of drug use, a noticeable omission in the field.
Journal Article
Well developed social and problem solving skills, greater ability to adapt, and positive peer relationships help to protect some children from the harmful consequences of being mistreated.
Report
Building on the first-year implementation assessment, this report examines the progress and effectiveness of the problem-solving officer program funded by Measure Y, Oakland, California's Violence Prevention and Public Safety Act of 2004.
Journal Article
This meta-analytic review of 148 studies on child and adolescent direct and indirect aggression examined the magnitude of gender differences, intercorrelations between forms, and associations with maladjustment.
Commentary
A significant emphasis has been placed on female suicide bombers' tactical success, and efforts to determine why they kill focus on al-Qaida's recruitment of women. But little attention is paid to the personal motivation women have for killing themselves and dozens of innocents around them, writes Farhana Ali.
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