Though the evidence base about what works in juvenile correctional education remains incomplete, the existing research does suggest promising directions for future programmatic investments.
On January 12, 2015, the UCLA–RAND Center for Law and Public Policy held a conference in Santa Monica, California, to examine the depth of the resourcing problem for state courts in the years following the 2008 financial crisis, discuss impact and collateral implications, and identify policy options and practical steps to mitigate the challenges. This report summarizes the panel discussions and participants' responses to audience questions.
The expansion of technological capability has changed the types of data routinely collected about citizens, which has potential utility in criminal justice proceedings. But these capabilities also have the potential to infringe on individuals' constitutional rights, especially to due process. In this report, RAND researchers, with the help of an advisory panel, craft a research agenda to help prepare the U.S. legal system to address these issues.
This paper seeks new evidence on the impact of private police on crime, exploiting a unique setting, the University of Chicago Police Department, that permits a credible examination of the causal effect of police in both the short and long run.
The Justice Innovation Center provides information on technology needs, priorities, and solutions for small, rural, tribal, and border criminal justice agencies. This report summarizes the center's research goals and efforts, which include a literature review, in-depth interviews with nearly 150 practitioners and topical experts, and focused discussions with an advisory panel of experts and practitioners.
This study aims to map alternatives to coercive sanctions (ACS) for drug law offences and drug-related crimes that are available under the law in each EU member state and describe the use of these sanctions in practice.
California's Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act provides funds for counties to offer evidence-based programs for high-need juvenile probationers and at-risk youths. This report evaluates the program on statewide and county measures. It also compares system costs for program youths in the six months before and after entering a program.
Using information drawn from the report Fostering Innovation in the U.S. Court System: Identifying High-Priority Technology and Other Needs for Improving Court Operations and Outcomes, this interactive tool for ranking court innovation needs allows users to re-prioritize the needs, based on their own views of the importance of different court system policy goals.
In April 2014 a new model for liaison and diversion schemes, which operate primarily in police custody suites and courts and aim to identify and assess people with vulnerabilities as they pass through the criminal justice system, was implemented in ten areas of England. An evaluation was commissioned by the Department of Health to look at the implementation of the new model in these sites.
Given the challenges posed to the U.S. courts sector, such as high caseloads and resource constraints, it is valuable to identify opportunities where changes in technology, policy, or practice could improve performance. In this report, RAND researchers, with the help of a practitioner Courts Advisory Panel, seek to map out an innovation agenda for the sector.
Uses an original data set of more than 3000 cases from 1918 to 1926 in the Central Criminal Courts of London to study the effect of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919.
Testimony presented before the California State Assembly, Committee on Public Safety on March 29, 2016.
Corruption is a phenomenon that can inflict serious political, economic and social harms to societies around the world. In addition, it poses a significant challenge to social justice and the rule of law, which may undermine trust in democratic institutions and processes. This study looks at the cost of non-Europe in relation to corruption, examining potential added value or benefits of EU-wide implementation of anti-corruption policies.
The research aimed to identify priorities for further attention by policymakers and researchers looking at the effectiveness of post-release supervision of terrorist offenders under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA).
The aim of this study was to understand perceptions of the nature of urban street gangs and whether these gangs have changed in recent years in the 33 areas that make up the UK Government's Ending Gang and Youth Violence (EGYV) programme.
Overt drug markets are often associated with violence and property crime, as well as lower quality of life for nearby residents. This process evaluation describes how well seven jurisdictions adhered to a Bureau of Justice Assistance strategy to reduce overt drug markets, as well as the barriers they encountered and the lessons learned from their experiences.
This study provides an overview of national prison downsizing strategies.
RAND Europe was commissioned to evaluate the development, implementation and operation of the 'Social Impact Bond' implemented at HMP Peterborough. This report provides evidence and key lessons on the operation of this funding model.
RAND conducted an expert panel on the criminal justice community's need to take advantage of (and mitigate threats from) emerging web technologies. This report outlines the technologies that were considered, the needs developed, and the overarching themes that arose during the panel proceedings.
Biased expert testimony is a leading cause of wrongful convictions, and new techniques are needed to reduce such biases. RAND researchers conducted an experimental investigation of two potential contributors to biased testimony within adversarial litigation involving forensic evidence: (1) experts' knowledge of their party representation (i.e., prosecution vs. defense counsel), and (2) lack of input from the relevant scientific community.
This Report presents the findings of research into self-inflicted deaths in custody amongst 18–24 year olds in England and Wales. The research was undertaken in five UK prisons, and was commissioned by a national review examining deaths in custody.
The study reported here focused on the flexibility that California granted counties in implementing constitutionally mandated and legislatively created public safety realignment — in particular, whether counties continued and expanded existing county corrections practices or used realignment as an opportunity to change from "business as usual."
California's Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act provides funds for counties to offer evidence-based programs for high-need juvenile probationers and at-risk youth. This report, based on the annual report to the state legislature, outlines the program's success for six outcome measures (completion of probation, restitution, and community service; arrests; probation violations; and incarcerations) and county-required supplemental outcomes.
This tool presents the prioritized needs related to digital evidence collection, management, analysis, and use and allows the user to see how their priorities would change when the importance of different digital evidence objectives are changed.
With digital devices becoming ubiquitous, digital evidence is increasingly important to the investigation and prosecution of many types of crimes. This report describes results of a research effort to identify and prioritize criminal justice needs related to digital evidence collection, management, analysis, and use.
