A National Evaluation of Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Training, [United States], 2019-2022 (ICPSR 38880)
Version Date: Mar 13, 2024 View help for published
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Ashley Lynn Boal, WestEd;
Anthony Petrosino, WestEd
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38880.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)'s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) Program provides TTA to ICAC task force members and their affiliate agencies to support the investigation of ICAC cases. However, little is known about the quality, implementation fidelity, outcomes, and costs associated with ICAC TTA Program training. This study was designed to fill this gap and focused on examining the quality, implementation fidelity, and costs of OJJDP-funded ICAC trainings, as well as participant reactions to training such as perceptions of quality and satisfaction, perceived changes in knowledge and skills, and perceived training results. Using a descriptive design, this study used multiple data collection and analysis approaches, including those that involved extant data collected by TTA providers (i.e., surveys, pre-post tests, implementation data, cost data) and original data collected by the evaluation team (i.e., observations, surveys, interviews, cost data). Findings suggest that overall, ICAC investigative training was rated highly by both trainees and their ICAC commanders in terms of the quality of training delivery, expertise of instructors, knowledge gains, and applicability to on-the-job ICAC investigations. Costs associated with ICAC training suggest a total cost of about $10.3 million to provide ICAC training over the three-year evaluation period, with annual average costs ranging from $2.9 million to $4.3 million over this period. Findings from this study are intended to support OJJDP in its understanding of the ICAC TTA Program to develop and deliver investigative TTA to ICAC task forces.
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City
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Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
This study sought to develop an understanding of: the quality of OJJDP-funded ICAC trainings, fidelity of implementation for OJJDP-funded ICAC trainings, participant reactions to OJJDP-funded ICAC trainings including perceptions of trainings, changes in knowledge and skills, and perceived training results, and training costs and, if possible, the association between costs and training outcomes.
Study Design View help for Study Design
Data on the development and implementation of ICAC trainings were collected in interviews with a lead representative from each of the training organizations. Data on costs associated with conducting ICAC trainings were collected in interviews and surveys of a member of the organization's Finance staff. Data on the individual instructors was collected through interviews and surveys. Data on the trainees were collected using interviews and surveys. The variation in trainee knowledge was measured using surveys. For interviews and follow-up surveys, trainees were selected from a select subset of trainings. These focus courses were non-randomly selected. Data on the focus courses were collected using observation of the training events in the course. Commander interviews for commanders hosting focus courses provided data on the needs and impact of the training.
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Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
Dataset 1 contains variables about ICAC trainings. These variables include the training organization, the starting date of the training, the training location, the course name, number of trainees, and if trainee surveys were administered. Dataset 2 contains three training organization finance staff interviews. These interviews include questions about training development costs, and training delivery costs. Dataset 3 contains the summary of the costs associated with the ICAC trainings including costs of personnel, equipment and materials, facilities, and travel.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2024-03-13
Version History View help for Version History
2024-03-13 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Performed consistency checks.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.