This resource is a guide for U.S. state governments as they seek to implement comprehensive targeted violence prevention (TVP) programming and evaluate its implementation, outcomes, and impact.
Using a Bayesian statistical analytic framework, investigates whether the Baltimore Police Department's use of aerial surveillance could help detectives solve serious violent crimes.
Preparing justice-involved individuals for successful reentry into the community and long-term desistance from crime is a critical mission of corrections agencies and their community-based partners. To accomplish this goal, corrections agencies employ a variety of supervision services and programs to address common need areas. In this report, experts identified strategies for employing technology to improve reentry outcomes.
Does mens rea matter to the criminal legal system? Our study addresses this question by performing the first-ever empirical analysis of a culpable mental state's impact on administration of a criminal statute.
Presents the results from a field experiment in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that provided a public defender at a defendant's initial bail hearing and explores the potential impacts of legal representation at this stage.
We investigate what portion of the pool of unemployed men in the United States have been arrested, convicted, or incarcerated by age 35.
Spotlight 2021–2022 highlights selected RAND Europe projects that address the important issues of our time. It also features research that is poised to make a difference in the coming year.
The authors conducted a process and outcomes evaluation of the Minnesota Department of Corrections' (MNDOC's) Career Navigators (CN) program. The program was created to assist people with college and training opportunities when they return to the community and at the front end of the corrections process. The research included qualitative data-collection involving CN participants and program staff and quantitative analysis of MNDOC data.
The researchers explored the landscape of prison-based programs for incarcerated parents and considered the extent to which programs sought to mitigate the effects of policies and practices that disproportionately affect Black and Latinx families. Administrators of prison facilities in five states completed an online survey about program implementation; program responsiveness to gender, culture, or both; and perceptions of program efficacy.
A RAND research report proposes the novel reset principle to guide more-accurate recidivism risk prediction for criminal background checks. The research also demonstrates the viability of a risk-prediction model that satisfies the reset principle.
This infographic accompanies a tool that supports the implementation of an empowerment-based domestic violence program within a family court setting.
This guide supports the implementation of an empowerment-based domestic violence program within a family court setting. It was developed to share the best practices learned during the evaluation of the Safe Horizon Family Court organization; this evaluation examined the functioning and processes of Safe Horizon's Family Court Program. It may be useful for researchers and practitioners interested in implementing a family court–based intervention.
Criminal background checks screen people for myriad opportunities, including employment. The authors propose the reset principle, which anchors recidivism risk assessments at the time of the background check to account for a person's time in the community since their last interaction with the criminal justice system. This differs from recidivism risk assessments in the criminal justice context, which are anchored at the time of conviction.
In this paper, the authors argue that the recidivism statistics cited most often in debates about the collateral consequences of conviction are not appropriate evidence in those debates. In particular, those statistics often are based on criminal justice cohort samples, which disproportionately contain frequent participants in the criminal justice system and thus have higher recidivism rates compared with the broader population of concern.
The authors examined the extent to which best practices for juvenile justice systems are considered when making funding decisions for services funded by the Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA) in Los Angeles. The JJCPA, administered by the California Board of State and Community Corrections, provides funding to counties to support programs to curb crime among at-risk youth and youth involved in the juvenile justice system.
This study measures public confidence in police and public support for policing practices. Findings reveal that participants expressed moderate levels of confidence in their local police, although confidence varied across racial groups.
This article explores one way prior punishments may contribute to cumulative disadvantage: through more severe sentencing of those under criminal justice supervision.
Using data on speeding violations in Virginia, researchers examine whether there are racial disparities in who benefits from the discretion of law enforcement and the courts to discount or downgrade misdemeanor violations.
In Virginia, motorists accused of excessive speeding can face either a criminal misdemeanor or a traffic infraction, and the charge is at the discretion of law enforcement officers and the courts. In this report, researchers use data on speeding violations in 18 Virginia counties over a nine-year period to examine whether there are racial disparities in who benefits from this discretion and why these racial disparities might exist.
RAND Corporation researchers studied deputy subgroups within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) to help LASD and the county learn more about how these subgroups are formed, why they exist, what actions might be taken if it is determined that these subgroups have a significant impact on LASD's mission, and whether subgroups have affected community perceptions and trust in LASD.
In this volume, experts offer policymakers with analysis and recommendations to support sustained, bipartisan reforms to move the criminal justice system toward a more humane and effective footing.
This report is based on two foundational beliefs: Reentry policy needs to be based on a theoretical desistance model, and the empirical evidence supports a desistance model that involves movement toward a positive pro-social identity.
The authors summarize findings of a process and outcome evaluation of Project imPACT, an employment program for individuals who have been involved in the criminal justice system, which provided services from July 2018 to December 2020.
Project imPACT is an employment-focused program for individuals who have been involved in the criminal justice system, designed by the Los Angeles City Mayor's Office and funded by the California Board of State and Community Corrections from funding available from Proposition 47. The authors summarize findings from a process and outcome evaluation of Cohort 1 of Project imPACT, which provided services from July 2018 to December 2020.
To better understand the actual role of forensic science, we collected data on the prevalence and use of forensic evidence in five jurisdictions in multiple stages of the criminal process.
