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Guided by dynamic and ecological conceptualizations of long-term resilience, this study examined whether psychosocial services delivered within juvenile residential facilities (RFs) were successful in promoting positive youth trajectories following release, whether facility violence, and, alternatively, staff connectedness influenced the effectiveness of services, and whether effects were further qualified by youth trauma history. Data for the project were drawn from the Pathways to Desistance study, which followed a large sample of juvenile offenders over seven years. A subset of 667 participants who completed release interviews following an RF stay and completed follow-up interviews were included in this study.

This collection includes the syntax files used to clean and analyze the Pathways to Desistance study Subject Measures and Release Measures data. More information about these collections and how to access these data is available on their study pages.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) initiated a multiyear effort to improve the efficiency, reliability, and utility of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The effort had three main goals: modernize the organization and content of the NCVS instrument, increase the quality of information collected and efficiency of the instrument flow, and improve the measurement and classification of crime. To that end, BJS is redesigning the entire survey instrument, which includes a household roster, a victimization screener, and a detailed crime incident report (CIR). Each of these instrument components were examined in the NCVS Instrument Redesign Field Test. This large-scale national field test was conducted from October 2019 to March 2020 to compare the performance of the current NCVS instrument and procedures (Condition 1) against the redesigned instrument (Condition 2). For more details on this effort, see the NCVS Instrument Redesign webpage.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics initiated a multiyear effort to improve the efficiency, reliability, and utility of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The effort had three main goals: modernize the organization and content of the NCVS instrument, increase the quality of information collected and efficiency of the instrument flow, and improve the measurement and classification of crime. To that end, BJS is redesigning the entire survey instrument, which includes a household roster, a victimization screener, and a detailed crime incident report (CIR). Each of these instrument components were examined in the NCVS Instrument Redesign Field Test. This large-scale national field test was conducted from October 2019 to March 2020 to compare the performance of the current NCVS instrument and procedures (Condition 1) against the redesigned instrument (Condition 2). For more details on this effort, see the NCVS Instrument Redesign webpage.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics initiated a multiyear effort to improve the efficiency, reliability, and utility of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The effort had three main goals: modernize the organization and content of the NCVS instrument, increase the quality of information collected and efficiency of the instrument flow, and improve the measurement and classification of crime. To that end, BJS is redesigning the entire survey instrument, which includes a household roster, a victimization screener, and a detailed crime incident report (CIR). Each of these instrument components were examined in the NCVS Instrument Redesign Field Test. The initial large-scale national field test was conducted from October 2019 to March 2020 to compare the performance of the current NCVS instrument and procedures (Condition 1) against the redesigned instrument (Condition 2).

After the large-scale field test, a smaller test was conducted that assessed the feasibility of conducting the NCVS as a self-administered, web-based instrument. This test included two samples: an address based sample (Condition 3A) and a sample of individuals who were part of an existing web-based panel (Condition 3B). For more details on this effort, see the NCVS Instrument Redesign webpage.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics initiated a multiyear effort to improve the efficiency, reliability, and utility of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The effort had three main goals: modernize the organization and content of the NCVS instrument, increase the quality of information collected and efficiency of the instrument flow, and improve the measurement and classification of crime. To that end, BJS is redesigning the entire survey instrument, which includes a household roster, a victimization screener, and a detailed crime incident report (CIR). Each of these instrument components were examined in the NCVS Instrument Redesign Field Test. The initial large-scale national field test was conducted from October 2019 to March 2020 to compare the performance of the current NCVS instrument and procedures (Condition 1) against the redesigned instrument (Condition 2).

After the large-scale field test, a smaller test was conducted that assessed the feasibility of conducting the NCVS as a self-administered, web-based instrument. This test included two samples: an address based sample (Condition 3A) and a sample of individuals who were part of an existing web-based panel (Condition 3B). For more details on this effort, see the NCVS Instrument Redesign webpage.

This project examined the implementation of student threat assessment in Florida public schools. Researchers investigated threat assessment training and implementation, which types of threat cases schools experienced, and how cases were resolved. This project used a mixed-method approach with four broad research questions: (1) What are stakeholder reactions to training and implementation of threat assessment in their school? (2) What are the characteristics of threat assessments conducted in Florida public schools? (3) What relationships exist among academic, disciplinary, and legal outcomes for students receiving a threat assessment? (4) Are there adverse disparities in student outcomes associated with race, ethnicity, or special education status?

The data produced by this study include three Case Data datasets (DS1-3), comprised of Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) case data on student threats from the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years; two Training Survey Data datasets (DS4/5), containing results from surveys of participants who completed Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG) trainings; and Needs Assessment Survey Data (DS6) from a survey of district school safety leads assessing needs and concerns about their district's threat assessment process.

This study contains data from the Northwestern Juvenile Project (NJP) series, a prospective longitudinal study of the mental health needs and outcomes of youth in detention.

The purpose of this study was to examine the dose of incarceration and subsequent psychiatric and psychosocial functioning in 1,829 justice-involved youths in Chicago, Illinois 16 years after detention.

The study publication, "Incarceration and Subsequent Psychosocial Outcomes: A 16-Year Longitudinal Study of Youth After Detention", was published in April 2025 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

This NIJ-funded study used a data driven approach to understand rural police department responses to the opioid crisis. Researchers compiled County-Level Drug Data on overdose deaths to understand the spatio-temporal distribution of drug misuse and to identify counties with high levels of death that are doing better and worse than expected according to an inclusive statistical model. In combination with this data, researchers collected Police Agency Survey Data from police departments in four states to understand departments' access to intelligence resources. Based on this survey, six agencies with varying law enforcement structural relations with state-level agencies were selected to participate in the study intervention. Departments were partnered with mentors and encouraged to enhance their intelligence networks, design a simple initiative, equip themselves for it, and carry it out. Outcomes from the intervention were evaluated through survey data - available as Implementation Site Administrative and Survey Data - and through a series of qualitative interviews, which will be made available at a later date.

Child Trends was funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to conduct an implementation and impact evaluation of the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice's (DJJ) Second Chance Act reentry reform efforts. Through a rigorous evaluation of DJJ's reentry efforts and the translation of study findings into recommendations for improving juvenile reentry efforts, this project aimed to enhance public safety and improve outcomes for young people reentering their communities. To achieve these goals, they completed three core objectives: 1) leverage DJJ's robust statewide administrative data system to conduct a quasi-experimental study to examine how the core components of DJJ's reentry reforms impact youth outcomes; 2) conduct an in-depth implementation evaluation to provide other states who are implementing federally funded reentry reforms with context for the study findings, as well as to identify challenges and solutions for implementing and sustaining the reforms; and 3) translate research findings for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers aiming to improve juvenile reentry.

The grant was transferred to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) in October 2018.

In 2018 law enforcement agencies gained access to a federally created, nationwide, interoperable first responder broadband communications network, called the National Public Safety Broadband Network, also known as FirstNet. The RAND Corporation was funded to conduct research and provide guidance to law enforcement agencies on how to best transition to the broadband communication network. To this end, the RAND Corporation performed a literature review, interviewed subject-matter experts, and developed coverage maps for select areas. The interviews covered topics such as the current state of deployment, system governance, system reliability, vendors used, and plans for migration.

This data collection includes select quotes and interview notes from the interviews with subject-matter experts. The literature review and coverage maps for select areas are not included in this collection.

This study examined the impact of policy changes resulting in the removal of school police on student outcomes. The study took advantage of recent widespread school police policy changes in California and extant survey and administrative data, and used a quasi-experimental study to compare school districts that removed school police during 2019-20 or 2020-21 with a matched comparison group of districts that did not remove school police. The study examined the impact of such policies on middle and high school students' reported safety, behavior, and well-being as well as administrative disciplinary data (suspensions).

This study also examined whether school police policy changes had differential impacts depending on the level of schools' mental health supports (student-to-counselor ratio). Finally, researchers conducted interviews with a sample of administrators and partnering community-based providers to identify the reasons for, and impact of, removing or retaining school police as well as policies and practices implemented as alternatives. There are no impact studies, to the researchers' knowledge, that examined the impact of removing school police. This study's findings are critical to understanding how the presence of police in schools relate to student outcomes.

This study evaluated the effects of demolishing or rehabilitating vacant and decaying buildings in Cleveland, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan as a violence prevention measure. Researchers used detailed longitudinal property-level data from 2011-2017 in Cleveland, Ohio and 2017 in Detroit, Michigan, to estimate the effects of demolition and rehabilitation of vacant and decaying properties under different targeting strategies and concentrations. The data produced by this study were aggregated into neighborhood-level variables of varying geographic specificity, which measure the study's primary outcome, firearm violence, and primary exposures, property demolition and rehabilitation. These data also include contextual variables reporting socioeconomic data, demographics, additional violent and nonviolent crime rates, and neighborhood composition variables (e.g. counts of commercial lots, apartments, single family homes/condominiums, etc.) at the neighborhood-level.

The Valuating Law Enforcement Data in the 21st Century study was conducted in four phases. Phase I included a literature scan and expert interviews. Phase II was an exploratory effort at understanding the dimensions and characteristics of valuation efforts focused on policing data. Phase III focused on developing a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) framework for body-worn cameras (BWCs). Finally, Phase IV turned the BWC CBA tool into a web-based calculator for law enforcement agencies to assess the likely impact of BWCs on their agency.

This collection includes qualitative notes from focus group discussions at site visits conducted in Phase II and Phase III of the study. Personnel from 13 law enforcement agencies across 10 U.S. states participated in the focus groups. Efforts were made to diversify among municipal police and sheriffs, the variety of agency sizes and populations served, and geography. In general, site visits were designed to include a variety of personnel, including from executive staff, information technology, patrol, investigations, and crime analysis.

The Juvenile Residential Facility Census (JRFC), which is conducted biennially, collects basic information on juvenile residential facility characteristics, including security, capacity and crowding, injuries and deaths in custody, and facility ownership and operation. The JRFC also includes questions about facility type (such as detention center, training school, ranch, or group home) and residential services provided by the facility (such as independent living, foster care, or other arrangements), and detailed questions about mental health, substance abuse, and educational services provided to young persons.

In 2022, the JRFC was divided into seven sections:

1. General facility information
2. Mental health services
3. Educational services
4. Substance abuse services
5. Events in the 30 days prior to the census reference date
6. Deaths in the year prior to the census reference date
7. Space shared with other facilities

Congress requires the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to report annually on the number of deaths of juveniles in custody; the JRFC gathers this information and offers a portrait of the nation's juvenile facilities. The census reference date was the fourth Wednesday in October (October 26, 2022).

The focus of this research study was to determine if the data and 3D images of bullet and cartridge cases acquired from different 3D imaging instruments are interchangeable between systems. The firearm that fired each bullet and cartridge case is known and scans were obtained with a variety of instruments. The gun, caliber, and type of ammunition were controlled.

The data for this study support efforts to identify compound identification limitations using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for seized drug analysis. This is a component of a larger project to evaluate specialized GC-MS methods for various drug classes, such as steroids and stimulants, alongside a new general analysis method. The dataset contains method parameters, mass spectra, and associated retention times generated from the replicate analysis of seized drug standards.

The Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) explores the relationship qualities and the subjective meanings that motivate adolescent behavior. More specifically, this study seeks to examine the nature and meaning of adolescent relationship experiences (e.g. with family, peers, and dating partners) in an effort to discover how experiences associated with age, gender, race, and ethnicity influence the meaning of dating relationships. The study further investigates the relative impact of dating partners and peers on sexual behavior and contraceptive practices, as well as involvement in other problem behaviors that can contribute independently to sexual risk-taking. The longitudinal design of the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) includes a schedule of follow-up interviews occurring one, three, five, ten, and about eighteen years after the initial interview. Additional waves have since been conducted.

Wave 2 of TARS includes data from follow-up surveys of adolescent respondents conducted approximately one year after the initial TARS survey. These data are accompanied by a series of weights for use in secondary analysis.

Under the Second Chance Act (SCA) of 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded hundreds of grants under various categories of competition to state, local, and tribal governments to develop or enhance re-entry programs. In 2018, the First Step Act was signed into law, helping to continue the financial support of the SCA program, among other reentry-focused services. While SCA programs have been operating for about 15 years, the research conducted on these programs and their services has been relatively short-term, examining outcomes on participants no more than a few years past the point of program enrollment. There had not yet been an examination of the long-term impacts of SCA services.

In 2021, DOJ's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) awarded a cooperative agreement to NORC at the University of Chicago (NORC) and its partner, Social Policy Research Associates (SPR), to evaluate the long-term impacts of seven SCA Adult Demonstration Program grantees, which were first awarded SCA funding in FY 2009. NORC and SPR, along with an additional partner, MDRC, previously evaluated these grantees by conducting an implementation study and a randomized controlled trial (RCT) impact study, with random assignment beginning in December 2011 (or approximately two years after the grantees began operating their SCA programs) and ending in March 2013. The results of this earlier evaluation were included in an implementation study report, an 18-month impact study report, based on a follow-up survey and administrative data, and a 30-month impact study report based on administrative data.

The goal of the current longitudinal research was to estimate the impacts of the SCA program on the outcomes of the original impact study participants, over the approximately ten to twelve years following the point when these participants were first randomly assigned. More specifically the current research has sought to assess:

1. whether SCA participants demonstrated better long-term outcomes related to recidivism (arrest, conviction, and incarceration) than did control group members;
2. whether SCA participants demonstrated better long-term employment and earnings outcomes than control group members
3. whether SCA participants demonstrated better long-term outcomes on other indicators of well-being (e.g., housing, family formation, benefits, substance abuse, etc.) than control group members.

To answer these questions the study team gathered both participant survey and administrative data.

• Survey data: Using a multi-phase process, the study team began administering a survey to study participants in late November 2021 and closed the survey on December 19, 2023. At that point, all pending respondents had been contacted by study team staff multiple times. The study team was able to complete 378 interviews during the entire survey data collection period.
• Criminal justice administrative data:The study team obtained arrest, conviction, and state prison and jail incarceration data from state and local public agencies (for the counties to which participants were released or served) in the six states and seven counties in which the seven grantees operated. The study team was able to collect these data from all agencies except two (arrest data in South Dakota and jail data from Oklahoma City). These data included all periods between random assignment and nearly ten years after random assignment for all participants.
• Employment and earnings administrative data: The study team was able to access data from the Department Health and Human Services' National Directory of New Hires database which allowed for the analysis of employment and earnings data for study participants over a two-year period from July 2022 to June 2024.

Survey and administrative data were used to answer the first two research questions with survey data being the only source for the third research question.

Nearly half of the law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in the United States were due to automobile crashes. Driver distraction has been identified as a common causal factor leading to the crash, with the primary source of distractions being the mobile computer. While there is plenty of literature on officer safety, what is lacking is an understanding of the needs of the officers to interact with the control or communication equipment while driving and how that interaction impacts distraction and, consequently, officer safety. To examine these issues, the research team conducted focus group discussions with law enforcement officers from local, county, and state agencies in four states. The two primary topics of discussion were:

1. Officer requirements to operate different pieces of equipment while driving, and
2. Different software and systems being used in patrol cars.

Recently there has been an influx of changes in gun legislation in the United States. There is now a growing trend in states adopting "constitutional carry" laws, which allow citizens of legal age who have not been legislatively denied the right, to legally and publicly possess and carry a concealed firearm without a permit. As of April 2019, fifteen states have passed constitutional carry (i.e., permit-less) firearm legislation. Two additional states, Kentucky and Oklahoma, will become the 16th and 17th states to allow constitutional carry before the end of 2019, and additional states (e.g., Alabama) are currently considering adopting constitutional carry in the future. Though arguments for (e.g., deterrent effects) and against (e.g., increased exposure to firearms in public) the relaxation of concealed carry laws often cite the potential impact of such laws on public safety, a review of available research provides limited insight on the effects of constitutional carry legislation on crime, violence, and other outcomes. There is also little known about the impact of constitutional carry on changes in police-citizen encounters, officer safety, and changes in police training.

The proposed study seeks to fill this void in empirical knowledge through a multi-phase analytical approach using data gathered from three cities within two states that recently passed constitutional carry laws. Specifically, this study seeks to examine the impact of constitutional carry legislation on 1) firearm and offense counts in Lexington (KY), Oklahoma City (OK), and Tulsa (OK); 2) arrest reports related to firearm arrests; and (3) officer perceptions of safety, training, and police-citizen encounters. Each data source aligns with a specific analytic approach, including interrupted time series analysis and frequency/bivariate analyses

This study will contribute to the body of research using a strong multi-methodological approach, address a gap in rigorous empirical scholarship regarding the impact of gun legislation and crime and public/police safety.

There have been many studies about how sex traffickers recruit sex workers. However, very few studies evaluated how sex traffickers are recruited and learn to recruit sex workers or sex trafficking victims or facilitate sex work, along with facilitation strategies, including interpersonal and economic coercion. This study aimed to close the gap in the literature by investigating the etiology of becoming a sex trafficker or a sex market facilitator and how this knowledge is transmitted across the generations.

This mixed methods study used Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) to recruit and survey sex traffickers in New York City and Chicago. Both cities have a long history of many types of sex market facilitation, ranging from ancillary roles in sex market facilitation up to sex trafficking. Qualitative data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 183 sex market facilitators (New York City (n=84) and Chicago (n=99)) about facilitators' social learning processes and social and criminal networks. Additionally, this study collected rich qualitative narratives, revealing how facilitators perceived themselves, their self-identities, and their roles as mentors. These data were recorded, stored securely, and later coded by researchers into a quantitative dataset deposited with ICPSR. This quantitative dataset captures facilitator/trafficker demographic characteristics and includes variables describing how sex traffickers are groomed or mentored to be traffickers, how they groom new traffickers, and how they interact and network socially with other traffickers and sex workers. The aforementioned qualitative data are not included in this release.

This study assessed and evaluated the programmatic implementation of alternate light source (ALS) use during the examination of injuries among adult victims of sexual violence and intimate partner violence (IPV) in a hospital setting. Researchers selected two forensic nursing departments, one with no experience using ALS in clinical practice (Site A) and one with 10+ years' experience (Site B), and conducted a thorough contextual analysis of each site to 1. develop an evidence-based ALS implementation program for forensic nursing departments and 2. evaluate the feasibility of this ALS implementation program.

Contextual analysis involved the collection of qualitative data through structured focus groups with nurses and quantitative data using 6-months of de-identified forensic medical records from patients who received a medical forensic exam for reported (or suspected) sexual assault or IPV. Nurses were recruited to the study upon completing an anonymous survey about their prior knowledge of ALS, qualifications or certifications related to ALS, workplace team dynamics, and organizational support for changes in practice using the Organizational Readiness to Change Assessment [ORCA]. This Nurse Survey Data and aforementioned Medical Record Data are currently available for secondary users, and qualitative interview transcripts will be made available in a future update.

This study was a longitudinal extension that examined trajectories of adult offending in a sample of women who participated in a randomized intervention trial aimed at reducing conduct problems and delinquency during adolescence. In the original study, girls ages 13 to 17 who had been referred for out-of-home placement due to chronic delinquency were randomly assigned to participate in services as usual (group care; GC) or in Treatment Foster Care Oregon (TFCO), previously known as Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care. TFCO is an evidence-based intervention designed as an alternative to residential care or incarceration for juvenile justice-involved adolescents and has been found to be effective in reducing youth delinquency, deviant peer affiliation, adolescent pregnancy, as well as longer term effects in reducing young adult criminal involvement, depression, suicidality, and substance use problems. The current study further evaluated outcomes in this sample of women at least six years after the last follow-up by examining trajectories of offending and involvement with the criminal justice system, health-risking behaviors, trauma, and long-term health outcomes, including biological indicators.

The Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) explores the relationship qualities and the subjective meanings that motivate adolescent behavior. More specifically, this study seeks to examine the nature and meaning of adolescent relationship experiences (e.g. with family, peers, and dating partners) in an effort to discover how experiences associated with age, gender, race, and ethnicity influence the meaning of dating relationships. The study further investigates the relative impact of dating partners and peers on sexual behavior and contraceptive practices, as well as involvement in other problem behaviors that can contribute independently to sexual risk-taking. The longitudinal design of the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) includes a schedule of follow-up interviews occurring one, three, five, ten, and about eighteen years after the initial interview. Additional waves have since been conducted.

Wave 1 of TARS includes detailed data collected from both parents and adolescent respondents about their relationship experiences, including self-reported data from parents, parent-reported data about adolescent respondents, and self-reported data from adolescent respondents. These data are available as a combined dataset organized by adolescent respondent.

The Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) includes several waves of data collection available through ICPSR. Please see the ICPSR Series page for available studies.

This study builds on a 20-year longitudinal investigation of the lives and relationship experiences of a large, diverse sample of young adult women and men interviewed first as adolescents. It focuses on the phenomenon of social distancing.

The COVID-19 survey (online) module and in-depth (phone) interviews with subsamples of compliant and less than compliant respondents has three specific aims: a) identify life course experiences and social influences associated with variability in compliance with social distancing recommendations, b) examine relationship-based dynamics and other contingencies (e.g., economic) linked to compliance decision-making, and particularly factors associated with 'derailments' after initially intending to comply with these guidelines, and c) assess consequences of social distancing for emotional and behavioral health and relationship functioning (e.g., depression, substance use, intimate partner conflict).

The Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) includes six prior waves of data that were collected in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2011, and 2018 through 2020. Please see the ICPSR Series page for available studies.

This project developed novel prescriptive analytics to assist criminal justice practitioners in the decision-making process in disrupting human trafficking networks, as well as develop a network generator that will simulate human trafficking networks. These analytics will be based on network interdiction problems, a class of mathematical problems that have been successfully applied to the disruption of nuclear smuggling and drug trafficking networks. Current limitations on applying network interdiction problems to disrupting human trafficking is the uncertainty in the network structure and that traffickers will react to any disruption efforts to mitigate their losses. We improved upon network interdiction models by incorporating how traffickers might react in response to disruption efforts. These models were tested on synthetic but realistic network data on domestic sex trafficking networks.

This study investigated the complex relationship between unauthorized immigration and crime at the local level. Through a mix of data fusion, synthetic population modeling, and detailed crime reporting from selected jurisdictions, the study sought to produce nuanced insights to challenge prevailing assumptions about immigration and crime, ultimately aiding in informed policy-making and resource allocation.

This study employed crime and crime reporting data from ten jurisdictions across the United States paired with synthetic data which estimated the unauthorized immigrant population. This research aimed to provide an in-depth analysis at the census tract level. Analyses focused on unauthorized immigration and its correlation with drug, property, and violent crime rates, while accounting for crime reporting in traditional and emerging immigrant destinations along with sites with low foreign populations.

The Comprehensive School Safety Initiative (CSSI) is a research-focused initiative that was launched by the National Institute of Justice in response to high-profile incidents of school violence. The CSSI grant program aimed to identify and understand the root causes of school violence and identify effective strategies for responding to and resolving safety and security issues. The Atlanta Comprehensive School Safety Initiative (Atlanta CSSI) project, funded in 2016 under the National Institute of Justice's CSSI grant program, and as a partnership between researchers and practitioners, centered around the fundamental question of how to design and implement safe and supportive learning environments for students in Atlanta Public Schools (APS).

Since 2014, district leadership from APS and researchers from WestEd and Georgia State University (GSU) developed a blended research and technical assistance approach to make progress towards improving school safety. The findings are based on data gathered through:

1. focus groups with school-and district-based staff;
2. observational protocols and meeting notes; and
3. school-level student climate and discipline data gathered by the state.

The Oklahoma Multi-Site Family Drug Court Model Standards Study utilized mixed-methods research in an attempt to advance implementation research on family treatment courts (FTCs), which serve families involved in the child welfare system due to caregiver substance use. The researchers developed the Model Standards Implementation Scale (MSIS), a tool used to assess FTC alignment with national best practices through interviews, courtroom observation, and document review. Administrative data from child welfare, substance use treatment, and court systems were linked to examine treatment completion, child welfare outcomes, and cost-effectiveness. These administrative data were also linked with court-level implementation data to assess the impact of FTC best practice implementation on the likelihood of reunification. Survey data were collected from two groups: 1) caregivers involved in maltreatment cases, to capture baseline demographic and clinical characteristics and clarify the FTC target population, and 2) child welfare professionals, to assess the presence and quality of cross-system collaboration. When merged with court implementation data, the professional survey data were used in an attempt to identify factors that support or hinder implementation of best practices.

Variables include drug use, addiction severity measures, abuse indicators, family dynamics, physical and mental health, along with FTC dynamic and structural traits.

This project studied the capacity of family group conferencing (FGC) to enhance public safety by equipping returning citizens with the skills and insight to repair relationships and reintegrate successfully into their communities and families. FGC is guided by the philosophy of restorative justice, meaning that crime primarily causes harm to people and relationships and, in turn, creates an obligation to repair that harm. FGC brings together the people most affected by a crime to discuss what happened, learn how people have been affected, and decide what needs to be done to repair the harm.

The project evaluated an FGC program implemented by Supporting Restorative Reentry in Detroit at a residential reentry center in Detroit, Michigan. Researchers used a randomized control trial with high-risk, formerly incarcerated participants still under Michigan Department of Corrections supervision with the goal of assessing the programs ability to reduce recidivism and increase quality of life for returning citizens, their families, and their communities. Variables include measures of criminal identity, optimism, personal agency, social bonds, the FGC process, risk scores, and twelve-month recidivism follow-up. Participants' age, gender, and race demographics are also collected.