NCJ Number
101763
Date Published
1983
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This speech by James K. Stewart to the Directors of Criminal Justice Centers in the United States and Canada reviews NIJ's research agenda during his leadership. He notes his discovery of a gap between researchers and practitioners at the onset of his tenure and discusses NIJ's efforts to assure that sponsored research falls in line with practitioners' needs.
Abstract
Beginning steps, he notes, were public hearings held by the NIJ advisory board with nationally recognized criminal justice leaders to help set research priorities and an NIJ nationwide needs survey of more than 1,400 criminal justice officials to identify their concerns and develop research policy implications. NIJ-sponsored research responding to these practitioner needs includes that focusing on identifying and controlling violent and career criminals, with such methods as surveillance after custody release and selective incapacitation. Other issues being explored are the impact of selective incapacitation on prison crowding, the impact of community crime prevention efforts on fear of crime, victim experiences with the criminal justice system, and cost-effective criminal justice strategies under budget cutbacks. Planned research will continue exploration of these issues and address improvements in probation and parole decisionmaking and intergovernmental law enforcement cooperation.