NCJ Number
225758
Journal
NIJ Journal Issue: 262 Dated: March 2009 Pages: 1-52
Editor(s)
Nancy Ritter
Date Published
March 2009
Length
52 pages
Annotation
This issue addresses the following topics and projects promoted by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ): identifying cases and victims of sex trafficking, countering community drug markets, postconviction DNA testing, preventing police officers’ sleep deprivation, protecting America’s ports, technology that makes prisons and jails safer, and preventing and preparing for school critical incidents.
Abstract
The article on sex trafficking recommends ways to identify victims, assess potential sex trafficking matters, and prioritize investigative steps. The article on countering community drug markets features a description and evaluation of the High Point Intervention project in High Point, NC, which identifies and arrests violent drug dealers and provides deterrent warnings and rehabilitation options for nonviolent drug dealers. Another article describes how NIJ is meeting the challenges posed by postconviction DNA testing that can exonerate the wrongfully convicted. This is followed by an article that suggests what police managers and individual officers can do to prevent sleep deprivation that undermines officers’ work performance. An article on port security reports on a study that identified promising security practices at U.S. ports, with attention to awareness of threats, prevention of an attack, preparedness for an attack, response to an attack, and recovery after an attack. An article on NIJ efforts to promote technology that makes prisons and jails safer features efforts to develop and test technology that scans facility visitors and inmates for contraband and weapons, as well as technology that tracks prisoners within the facility and identifies prison “hotspots.” The concluding article reports on an NIJ-sponsored study of violent incidents and student-attackers in 37 school incidents, so as to provide information to schools that will assist in preventing and responding to such incidents. This article also briefly describes some NIJ resources available to assist schools in these efforts.