Using a practice-oriented case study of a research-practitioner partnership within the Never Give Up Transitional Living program, this study examines how evaluation readiness developed over approximately 2.5 years before formal evaluation began.
Criminal history is a well-established predictor of future offending, yet recidivism risk declines with time. Research has struggled to reconcile this tension as criminal history is often treated as a static indicator of risk, while desistance is commonly inferred rather than directly modeled. Using a five-state population of criminal charges spanning forty years (N = 16,594,838; person-year observations = 746,396,524), we model recidivism prediction decay following a prior charge.
Each year, approximately 1.5 million Americans attempt suicide, and repeated attempts pose heightened risks for individuals, families, and communities.
Drug treatment courts (DTCs) rely on structured supervision and treatment to curb substance use among justice-involved individuals. Using group-based trajectory modeling, this study identifies early-phase patterns of in-program substance use among 320 adult DTC participants, measured through positive drug tests across the first 90 days.
This study examines Washington State from January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2025. Using administrative data from 116,559 cases, we employ interrupted time-series analysis to assess four policy changes and their effects on readmissions, first-time prison admissions, and technical violations.
This study examines how undocumented item-level missingness during scale construction of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI) within the Pathways to Desistance dataset accessed through ICPSR can shape the measurement properties and downstream use of the measure in secondary analysis.
Drug treatment courts (DTCs) offer a community-based alternative sanction that prioritizes combining substance use treatment and judicial oversight to support the recovery of system-involved individuals who have substance use issues.
Using data from 131,899 assessments conducted in Minnesota between 2012 and 2022, along with qualitative input from probation staff across 43 agencies, this study evaluated the LS/CMI’s usability, reliability, predictive validity, and functionality.
The Risk-Needs-Responsivity (RNR) model posits separating lower from higher-risk individuals to avoid risk contamination.
The issue of psychopathology among gang populations is controversial. Building off an interdisciplinary theoretical basis that adapts a tripartite theoretical model (i.e., selection, facilitation, and enhancement) on the gang membership-offending link (Thornberry et al. 1993) to the mixed positions on the gang membership-psychopathic traits relationship, this study tests selection and facilitation models.
Police officers must approach volatile situations that may escalate on a frequent basis.
Amid the proliferation of synthetic opioids, prosecutors have increasingly turned to drug-induced homicide (DIH) laws as a legal mechanism to hold drug suppliers criminally accountable for fatal overdoses.
This study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic shaped the daily work of frontline community corrections staff from pretrial, probation, parole board, and parole agencies.
Decarceration is a national effort to shrink prison populations while preserving public safety.
Prisons do not simply confine bodies, they confiscate time.
Validation of Nebraska's juvenile detention screening instrument: the Nebraska Intake Risk Assessment Instrument (RAI).
Correctional systems across the United States continue to face persistent challenges related to overcrowding, limited resources, and the need to balance institutional safety with rehabilitative goals.
This study addresses two issues that challenge policy, practice, and research on restrictive housing in prisons.
Using 111,731 reentrants assessed via the Static Risk Offender Needs Guide–Revised (STRONG-R), we redesigned the needs assessment and establish construct validity via exploratory, confirmatory, multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, correlation, receiver operating characteristics, and regression techniques.
Restorative justice diversion programs provide an alternative to traditional diversion programs.
Juvenile Sex Offenders (JSOs) are often the subject of public scrutiny and fear.
A paucity of research has examined the prevalence of domestic and intimate partner violence (DV/IPV) victimization among persons experiencing eviction.
In this chapter, we document the landscape of healthcare in corrections.
Risk-needs assessments (RNAs) assist correctional staff in assigning supervision and programming.
Risk-needs assessments (RNAs) are an evidence-based practice used by practitioners to assign supervision and programming.
Drug court programs were introduced in 1989 to reduce incarceration of people with drug-related offenses by integrating substance use treatment into court settings.
Used to reduce detention, bail/bond, and jail, pretrial risk assessments (PRAs) applications have expanded in the last decade.
In response to growing concerns among stakeholders and policy makers regarding crowding in Nebraska correctional facilities, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) partnered with the Nebraska Center for Justice Research (NCJR) to examine causes and solutions.
While risk instruments are consistently used to aid classification and supervision decisions, needs assessments guide intervention efforts for individuals under supervision.
Gang membership has a robust relationship with crime and violence, leading scholars to take an interest in examining the sources of gang joining.
The purpose of this study was to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic changed U.S. prison operations and influenced the daily work of prison staff.
Personal, behavioral, and environmental risk factors are correlated to varying degrees with each other and with the overall likelihood of violent reinjury.
Employment theoretically serves as a source of informal social control that can promote desistance from crime (Sampson & Laub, 1993).
The continuing crises of the COVID-19 pandemic and issues surrounding disparate policing practices have illuminated an underlying issue facing law enforcement agencies- how to recruit, hire, and retain qualified officers.
In the assessment world, risk determines “who” to treat and needs determine “what” (Bonta & Andrews, 2016).
An abundance of research has established Adverse Childhood Experiences’ (ACEs’) contributions to deviant behavior.
Research indicates non-cisgender and non-heterosexual individuals experience higher rates of intimate partner violence compared to their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts.
Risk assessments have been constructed using a variety of algorithms, from bivariate associations, to regression, to advanced machine learning (ML) approaches.
In December 2018, the First Step Act of 2018 was signed into law, which required the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to begin using risk and needs assessment to assign programs and provide inmates with required treatment.
A top priority of prison authorities is maintaining a safe and orderly institutional environment. Gangs are believed to impede this objective, warranting bespoke policies and practices.
Cybercriminals operate in obscurity to avoid detection of their illegal deeds.
Over the past decade there have been numerous and impassioned calls to reform the practice of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons.
Since their seminal work, Andrews and Bonta outlined the Central Eight assessment domains.
The National Death Index (NDI), a comprehensive and well-established database compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics, is an untapped source of homicide data that offers identifiable linkages to other data sources while retaining national coverage.
Reentry experiences for the 600,000 people released annually from federal and state prisons differ vastly. We contend that gangs, which rose to prominence alongside mass incarceration, are an overlooked source of variation in reentry experiences.