Search results

Showing 1 – 3 of 3 results.
Curated
Restricted

Collecting DNA from Juveniles in 30 U.S. States, 2009-2010 (ICPSR 31281)

Released/updated on: 2014-12-19
Geographic coverage: Oregon, United States, Tennessee, Maine, Alabama, Arkansas, Utah, Washington, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Colorado, Alaska, Wisconsin, Arizona, Montana, Kentucky, South Dakota, Minnesota, California, Kansas, Florida, New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Illinois, Texas, New Hampshire, Louisiana, Ohio, Virginia
Time period: 2007-01-01--2010-01-01

This study examined the laws, policies, and practices related to juvenile DNA collection, as well as their implications for the juvenile and criminal justice systems. DNA evidence proved valuable in solving crimes, which motivated a concerted effort to expand the categories of offenders who provided DNA samples for analysis and inclusion in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)-operated national database.

State requirements for DNA collection, which initially focused on adult offenders convicted of sexual or violent offenses, expanded to include other categories of convicted felons, convicted misdemeanants, arrestees, and juveniles. In 30 states, certain categories of juveniles handled in the juvenile justice system must now provide DNA samples. The study was designed to explore the practice and implications of collecting DNA from juveniles and addressed the following questions:

  1. How have state agencies, juvenile justice agencies and state laboratories implemented juvenile DNA collection laws?
  2. What were the number and characteristics of juveniles with profiles included in CODIS?
  3. How have juvenile profiles in CODIS contributed to public safety or other justice outcomes?
  4. What improvements to policies and practices needed to be made?

To examine these questions, researchers at the Urban Institute: (1) systematically reviewed all state DNA statutes; (2) conducted semi-structured interviews with CODIS lab representatives in states that collect DNA from juveniles to understand how the laws were implemented; (3) collected and analyzed descriptive data provided by these labs on the volume and characteristics of juvenile profiles in CODIS; (4) conducted semi-structured interviews with juvenile and criminal justice stakeholders in five case study states; and (5) convened a meeting of federal officials and experts from the forensic and juvenile justice committees to explore the broader impacts of juvenile DNA collection.

Curated

Evaluation of the Community Supervision Mapping System for Released Prisoners in Rhode Island, 2008-2010 (ICPSR 32004)

Released/updated on: 2014-09-30
Geographic coverage: Rhode Island, United States
Time period: 2008-01-01--2010-01-01
This study evaluated the Community Supervision Mapping System (CSMS), an online geospatial tool that enables users to map the formerly incarcerated and others on probation, along with related data such as service provider locations and police districts. Probation officers in the state of Rhode Island were surveyed a few weeks before and 18 months after the implementation of CSMS. A total of 56 probation officers participated in the first wave of the study (pre-implementation survey), and 52 probation officers participated in the second wave (post-implementation survey), yielding an overall sample size of 108 probation officers. Dataset 1 contains the data for both waves of the study. The dataset is comprised of 140 variables. Both waves of the study examined the following categories of variables: the probation officer's professional background, contact with clients, amount of time spent on job duties specific to the profession, contact with other agencies, and computer usage. The second wave added 86 variables to explore officers' experiences with CSMS, which features they used, how it impacted their work, and their expected use of CSMS in the future.
Curated

Missing Data in the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), 1977-2000 [United States] (ICPSR 32061)

Released/updated on: 2012-11-26
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1977-01-01--2000-01-01
This study reexamined and recoded missing data in the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) for the years 1977 to 2000 for all police agencies in the United States. The principal investigator conducted a data cleaning of 20,067 Originating Agency Identifiers (ORIs) contained within the Offenses-Known UCR data from 1977 to 2000. Data cleaning involved performing agency name checks and creating new numerical codes for different types of missing data including missing data codes that identify whether a record was aggregated to a particular month, whether no data were reported (true missing), if more than one index crime was missing, if a particular index crime (motor vehicle theft, larceny, burglary, assault, robbery, rape, murder) was missing, researcher assigned missing value codes according to the "rule of 20", outlier values, whether an ORI was covered by another agency, and whether an agency did not exist during a particular time period.
Back to top