Victims of Crime

The Jail Sexual Assault Prevention project tests the application of violence reduction strategies informed by situational crime prevention (SCP) theory within three jail facilities. The project collected and synthesized data from multiple sources in order to identify and implement interventions to address each facility’s unique safety challenges: an officer tour system in Site A, a recording camera system in Site B, and crisis intervention training at Site C. The brief provides summary findings on the safety impacts and cost effectiveness of each intervention and discusses the utility of a SCP framework in addressing correctional violence.

When the Violence Against Women Act was reauthorized in 2005, it mandated that states receiving STOP funding provide free sexual assault forensic exams (SAFEs) to sexual assault victims and allow victims to receive exams without having to report the assault to law enforcement. States were given until January 5, 2009, to fully comply with the mandate. This presentation includes background information on the reauthorization and the study design, along with preliminary findings from a review of statutory and administrative codes on SAFE payment practices and from national surveys administered to state STOP administrators, compensation administrators, and state coalitions.

Cities are increasingly turning to surveillance cameras to reduce crime, but do they stop wrongdoing in its tracks or simply push it into other neighborhoods? If the cameras perform as intended, what are their costs to police budgets and citizen rights?

The Jail Sexual Assault Prevention project tests the application of violence reduction strategies informed by situational crime prevention theory (SCP) within three jail facilities. The project collected and synthesized data from multiple sources in order to identify and implement interventions to address each facility's unique safety challenges: an officer tour system in Site A, a recording camera system in Site B, and crisis intervention training at Site C. The report provides findings on the safety impacts and cost effectiveness of each intervention and discusses the utility of a SCP framework in addressing correctional violence.

Eight years after the Madden/Wells redevelopment started, this brief presents what has happened to the original residents, including the type of housing assistance they received and where they lived in 2009. Despite a number of challenges, we found that by 2009, all of the residents had relocated and nearly one in five former Madden/Wells residents was living in a new mixed-income housing development. Most of the former Madden/Wells residents reported that their current housing and neighborhood was better than Madden/Wells. However, only a minority lived in economically or racially diverse neighborhoods that offer real opportunities for themselves and their children.

Expanding drug courts to all 1.5 million drug-involved offenders would cost more than $13 billion annually, but would return more than $40 billion in benefits, John Roman told a House of Representatives subcommittee. The criminal justice system can maximize the use of drug courts without adding billions in new costs by calling on less expensive strategies, such as Hawaii's Project HOPE, to identify defendants who can be encouraged to desist from offending, allowing drug courts to focus on those who cannot.

Testimony delivered to the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia, hearing on "The Local Role of the United States Parole Commission (USPC): Increasing Public Safety, Reducing Recidivism, and Using Alternatives to Re-incarceration in the District of Columbia." The testimony summarizes work by UI synthesizing extant research and expert consensus regarding what constitutes effective parole supervision to reduce recidivism. Changes currently underway in the parole field and factors to consider in implementing the practices discussed are also presented.

A National Academy of Sciences report addresses the science-or lack thereof-in America's crime labs and criminal justice system. John Roman explains why a new era of scientific policing may be at hand.