AndreaBozzo/ceres-open-data-index huggingface dataset:
Role of Police Psychology in Controlling Excessive Force in 50 Large Cities in the United States, 1992

As part of the development of an information base for
 subsequent policy initiatives, the National Institute of Justice
 sponsored a nationwide survey of police psychologists to learn more
 about the characteristics of officers who abuse force, the types of
 measures police psychologists recommend to control police violence and
 the role of police psychologists in preventing and identifying
 individual police officers at risk for use of excessive force. Police
 personnel divisions in 50 large cities were contacted for names and
 addresses of the police psychologists who provided services to their
 departments. Data were collected using a telephone interview protocol
 that included 61 questions. In this study, excessive force was defined
 as a violation of a police department's use-of-force policy by an
 incumbent officer that was serious enough to warrant a referral to the
 police psychologist. Background information collected on respondents
 included years with the department, years as a police psychologist, if
 the position was salaried or consultant, and how often the
 psychologist met with the police chief. A battery of questions
 pertaining to screening was asked, including whether the psychologist
 performed pre-employment psychological screening and what methods were
 used to identify job candidates with a propensity to use excessive
 force. Questions regarding monitoring procedures asked if and how
 police officer behavior was monitored and if incumbent officers were
 tested for propensity to use excessive force. Items concerning police
 training included which officers the psychologist trained, what types
 of training covering excessive force were conducted, and what modules
 should be included in training to reduce excessive force. Information
 about mental health services was elicited, with questions on whether
 the psychologist counseled officers charged with excessive force, what
 models were used, how the psychologist knew if the intervention had
 been successful, what factors limited the effectiveness of counseling
 police officers, characteristics of officers prone to use excessive
 force, how these officers are best identified, and who or what has the
 most influence on these officers. General opinion questions asked
 about factors that increase excessive force behavior and what services
could be utilized to reduce excessive force.

Tags: police-officers, police-training, police-use-of-force, psychological-evaluation, violence
Organization: Department of Justice
Prosecuting Adolescents in Juvenile and Criminal Jurisdictions in Selected Counties in New Jersey and New York, 1992-1993

A different model of justice is assumed to be reflected in
 the prosecution of adolescents in juvenile jurisdictions compared to
 criminal jurisdictions, with a juvenile justice model in the juvenile
 jurisdiction and a criminal justice model in the criminal jurisdiction. 
 These two models of justice are believed to be very different from one
 another across three dimensions: formality of case processing,
 evaluation of defendants, and punishment. This research project compared
 the prosecution and punishment of adolescent felony offenders in the New
 Jersey juvenile jurisdiction and the New York criminal jurisdiction to
 determine whether these two models of justice varied across the two
 jurisdiction types. Data from this collection were used by the
 researcher only to examine the dimension of punishment severity across
 jurisdiction types and across courts within each jurisdiction type. Data
 were collected on comparable cases of adolescent felony offenders from
 counties in New Jersey and New York. Due to the very different
 boundaries between juvenile and criminal jurisdictions in these adjacent
 states, the data include cases (matched by offense and offender age) in
 New Jersey's juvenile jurisdiction and New York's criminal jurisdiction.
 Cases of 15- and 16-year-old defendants who had been charged with
 aggravated assault, robbery, or burglary in three counties of New Jersey
 and three counties of New York City in 1992 and 1993 were sampled.
 Variables include offender characteristics, such as age at offense, sex,
 race, and ethnicity, offense characteristics, court action and
sentencing information, state, and county.

Tags: adolescents, case-processing, criminal-courts, criminal-justice-system, jurisdiction, juvenile-courts, juvenile-offenders, prosecution, punishment
Organization: Department of Justice
Determinants of Chicago Neighborhood Homicide Trends, 1980-2000

The purpose of the study was to examine homicide trends in Chicago neighborhoods from 1980-2000 using HOMICIDES IN CHICAGO, 1965-1995 (ICPSR 6399), 1980-2000 Census data, and PROJECT ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOODS: COMMUNITY SURVEY, 1994-1995 (ICPSR 2766). Drawing on the social disorganization and concentrated disadvantage literature, this study used growth-curve modeling and semi-parametric group-based trajectory modeling to: (1) assess neighborhood variation in homicide trends; (2) identify the particular types of homicide trajectory that Chicago neighborhoods follow; (3) assess whether structural characteristics of neighborhoods influence homicide trends and trajectories; and (4) determine the extent to which the influence of structural characteristics is mediated by neighborhood levels of collective efficacy. This project extended prior research by not only describing the homicide trends and trajectories of Chicago neighborhoods, but also identifying the neighborhood characteristics that directly and indirectly influence those trends.

Tags: crime-patterns, homicide, neighborhood-change, neighborhood-characteristics, neighborhood-conditions
Organization: Department of Justice
Addressing Sexual Violence in Prisons: A National Snapshot of Approaches and Highlights of Innovative Strategies, 2004-2005: [United States]


These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.


Before the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003, it was not clear the extent to which state departments of corrections (DOCs) were addressing sexual violence in systematic ways. In fact, little information existed about what strategies were being put into practice in prison systems across the country. PREA changed the way DOCs addressed prison sexual violence (PSV). Mandatory recordkeeping and a push for eliminating such incidents moved
many DOCs to develop specific responses to PSV or to further refine approaches already in place. The purpose of this project was to provide a national snapshot of DOC initiatives to address PSV, as well as to identify specific practices that seemed to be, in the absence of formal evaluations, particularly promising or innovative in nature.


Researchers conducted three tasks: (1) The Survey of State Correctional Administrators (SSCA) involving written surveys and follow-up phone interviews with leaders of state DOCs. During the survey, state administrators described the state's overall approach to PSV and nominated specific strategies as particularly promising; (2) The Survey of Promising Practices (SPP) involving phone interviews with DOC representatives who spoke about promising practices nominated during the SSCA. Interviews were conducted with facility directors, service providers, or other state personnel affiliated with nominated approaches; and (3) Case studies involving site visits to states that researchers determined could provide the most informative lessons on addressing sexual violence in prison to the largest audience of practitioners, researchers, and policymakers.


The collection includes 2 Access databases, one each for the SSCA (ASCA_4_6_2006.directors.mdb) and the SSP (ASCA_FAC_4_6_2006.prompractices.mdb).  The data related to the Case Studies are not available at this time.


Tags: correctional-facilities, correctional-guards, correctional-officers, corrections-management, inmates, prison-administration, prison-conditions, prison-violence, rape, sexual-assault
Organization: Department of Justice
Providing a Citywide System of Single Point Access to Domestic Violence Information, Resources, and Referrals to a Diverse Population: An Evaluation of the City of Chicago Domestic Violence Help Line, 2004-2005


This study was a 2-year evaluation of the City of Chicago Domestic Violence Help Line. The Help Line was a unique telephone service functioning as a clearinghouse for all domestic violence victim services in the Chicago metropolitan area. The service was toll-free, multi-lingual, confidential, and operated 24-hours, 7 days a week. The purpose of the Help Line was to connect domestic violence victims to specialized services through direct referrals and three-way phone linkages.


In order to conduct a comprehensive evaluation, the perspective of a broad range of users of the Help Line was sought. Telephone interviews were conducted with domestic violence victim callers to the Help Line over the course of one year (Part 1 - Victims Data). Telephone interviews were also conducted with domestic violence service providers (Part 2 - Providers Data). As the largest referral source into the Help Line, Chicago Police Officers completed a written survey about their experiences with the Help Line (Part 3 - Police Data). Finally, to explore the general awareness of the Help Line, members of the District Advisory Committees across the city were surveyed (Part 4 - District Advisory Committee (DAC) Data).


The Part 1 (Victims Data) data file contains 399 cases and 277 variables.  The Part 2 (Providers Data) data file contains 74 cases and 137 variables.  The Part 3 (Police Data) data file contains 1,205 cases and 128 variables.  The Part 4 (District Advisory Committee (DAC) Data) data file contains 357 cases and 105 variables.


Tags: abuse, advocacy, domestic-violence, victim-safety, victim-services, violence, violence-against-women, womens-shelters
Organization: Department of Justice
Coaching Teachers in Detection and Intervention Related to Bullying, Mid-Atlantic Region, 2016-2018

This study focuses on bullying prevention in classroom context. An approach was used to address bullying in the classroom through an adapted version of the Classroom Check-up coaching model, which is combined with a mixed-reality simulator called TeachLivE to build teacher skills in preventing, detecting, and responding to bullying.

Tags: aggression, bullying, intervention, junior-high-school-students, school-violence, teachers
Organization: Department of Justice
Survey of American Prisons and Jails, 1979

This data collection contains information gathered in a
two-part survey that was designed to assess institutional conditions
in state and federal prisons and in halfway houses. It was one of a
series of data-gathering efforts undertaken during the 1970s to assist
policymakers in assessing and overcoming deficiencies in the nation's
correctional institutions. This particular survey was conducted in
response to a mandate set forth in the Crime Control Act of 1976. Data
were gathered via self-enumerated questionnaires that were mailed to
the administrators of all 558 federal and state prisons and all 405
community-based prerelease facilities in existence in the United
States in 1979. Part 1 contains the results of the survey of state and
federal adult correctional systems, and Part 2 contains the results of
the survey of community-based prerelease facilities. The two files
contain similar variables designed to tap certain key aspects of
confinement: (1) inmate (or resident) counts by sex and by security
class, (2) age of facility and rated capacity, (3) spatial density,
occupancy, and hours confined for each inmate's (or resident's)
confinement quarters, (4) composition of inmate (or resident)
population according to race, age, and offense type, (5) inmate (or
resident) labor and earnings, (6) race, age, and sex characteristics
of prison (or half-way house) staff, and (7) court orders by type of
order and pending litigation. Other data (contained in both files)
include case ID number, state ID number, name of facility, and
operator of facility (e.g., federal, state, local, or private).

Tags: correctional-facilities, correctional-guards, court-orders, crime-statistics, federal-correctional-facilities, halfway-houses, inmate-classification, inmate-programs, inmates, jails, lawsuits, offenses, prerelease-programs, prison-administration, prison-c
Organization: Department of Justice
Plea Bargaining in the United States, 1978

This study was conducted in 1978 at the Institute of
Criminal Law and Procedure of the Georgetown University Law Center. The
study consists of three files. The first contains information from
3,397 case files in six United States cities. The 63 variables include
demographic information on the accused and the victim, past record of
the accused, seriousness of the offense, pleas entered, speed of trial
process, and sentencing. The second file contains information gathered
from in-court observations focused on the formal supervision of plea
bargaining by judges. There are approximately 33 variables for each of
the 711 court observations. The third file consists of the results of a
plea bargaining simulation game. There are 17 variables for each of the
479 cases in the file.

Tags: court-cases, court-system, crime, criminal-justice-system, plea-negotiations, sentencing
Organization: Department of Justice
National Survey of the Court's Capacity to Provide Protection Orders to Limited English Proficient (LEP) Battered Women, 2003-2006

The primary goal of the research project was to collect national-level information on the provision of protection orders for non-English speaking applicants. There were six objectives: (1) To determine the extent of Limited English Proficient (LEP) women seeking protection orders on a national scale with documentation of languages represented and geographic distribution; (2) To assess current policies and procedures regarding LEP requests for protection orders; (3) To estimate the courts' current level of language services and assistance to LEP women seeking protection orders; (4) To identify and assess court collaborations with local community-based organizations; (5) To examine budget, staffing, and coordination issues that facilitate delivery of services to LEP clients; and (6) To develop national service and delivery models based on promising local practices.
The multi-method study design included a national survey of courts, an intensive survey of a select group of courts and community-based organizations within their jurisdictions, and the assessment of selected sites that can serve as national models. The national survey, based on a systematic sample of counties stratified by population and state resulted in a nationally representative sample of courts. The overwhelming majority of courts were general jurisdiction courts that handled a variety of criminal, civil, and/or family matters. The national survey was followed by an intensive survey of a subset of courts, and local community-based organizations (CBOs) that served domestic violence victims. Courts selected for this phase had promising practices, such as language assistance plans in civil cases and the use of certified interpreters. The intensive survey included telephone interviews of court and CBO representatives and a fax survey for CBOs. Finally, three case studies were conducted to develop promising practices.  The Part 1 (Phase I Data) data file contains 158 cases and 203 variables.  The Part 2 (Phase II Quantitative Data) data file contains 81 cases and 81 variables.  Part 3 (Phase II Qualitative Data) contains 123 interviews.

Tags: bilingualism, community-organizations, courts, domestic-violence, language, restraining-orders, violence-against-women
Organization: Department of Justice
Validation of a Risk Assessment Instrument for Juvenile Probationers in Alameda County, California, 1996

This study sought to develop a risk assessment instrument
to be used in the placement of adjudicated juveniles and
determination of outcomes for juvenile probationers. The following
research questions served as a guide in developing the risk
assessment instrument: (1) Does the instrument measure what it
purports to measure? (2) Do similar cases receive similar
recommendations for placement services? (3) Is the instrument fair to
dissimilar groups? (4) Is the instrument useful to practitioners?
and (5) Will the instrument be simple to implement? The goal of the
new risk assessment instrument was to address the relative risk of
recidivism without taking into account the severity of the current
offense. In order to develop a new risk assessment instrument,
researchers adapted a pre-existing instrument that had been used and
validated with juvenile probationers in California. The new
instrument was used to evaluate youths for three measures of
recidivism: intake actions, petitions filed, and petitions sustained
through one year after the placement decisions were made. The sample
of youths was comprised of those who in 1996 had received either a
field supervision or a placement order as a disposition. The
instrument measured age at first finding, prior criminal behavior,
institutional commitments or placement of 30 consecutive days or
more, drug/chemical use, alcohol use, parental skills, school
disciplinary problems, and peer relationships.

Tags: criminal-histories, juvenile-offenders, juveniles, postrelease-programs, probation-services, probationers, recidivism, risk-assessment
Organization: Department of Justice
Evidence-Based Review of Rape and Sexual Assault Preventive Intervention Programs in the United States, 1990-2003

This study was an evidence-based review of sexual assault
 preventive intervention (SAPI) programs. A total of 67 publications
 including articles, government reports, and book chapters (excluding
 dissertations) representing 59 studies met the inclusion criteria and
 were included in the data abstraction process. In order to be included
 in the review, the resource had to be an English-language publication,
 published between 1990 and June 2003, of a SAPI evaluation of a
 primary or secondary preventive intervention program that targeted
 people who were adolescent-age or older, and which included outcome
 measures and a pre-test/post-test or between-group differences
 design. The findings for the article reviews are presented in evidence
 tables, for the general population in Part 1 and the evidence tables
for individuals with disabilities in Part 2.

Tags: crime-prevention, intervention-strategies, rape, sexual-assault
Organization: Department of Justice
Prosecuting Domestic Violence Cases with Reluctant Victims in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1994-1995

Officials in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, introduced two
 experiments designed to provide answers to questions of how to deal
 with victim reluctance in domestic violence cases. Two projects funded
 by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) evaluated these Milwaukee
 domestic violence experiments. The first project examined the
 effectiveness of a specialized domestic violence court that opened in
 September 1994. The primary intent of the specialized domestic
 violence court was to speed up the disposition of cases. The second
 project examined the impact of a change in the district attorney's
 (DA's) screening policy that admitted more cases into the special
 court, which became effective January 1, 1995. The liberalized
 prosecutorial policy was intended to determine whether arrests that
 the DA normally rejected for prosecution because victims failed to
 attend the prosecutor's charging conference could be prosecuted
 successfully none the less. The researchers collected data from three
 time periods: (1) prior to September 1994, (2) between September 1994
 and January 1995, and (3) post-Janurary 1995. For the first
 experiment, several samples were selected from court and DA records to
 assess the impact of the introduction of the special domestic violence
 court and its impact after the change in the DA's charging policy.
 These samples of domestic violence cases (court samples) filed by the
 prosecutor included: (1) 237 cases from Summer 1994, (2) 190 cases
 from Fall 1994, and (3) 242 cases from Spring 1995. For the second
 experiment, three additional samples (complaint room samples) were
 collected of domestic cases declined by the prosecutor to determine
 how victim attendance at the charging conference and other factors
 affected the decision to prosecute: (1) 152 cases from Summer 1994,
 (2) 155 cases from Fall 1994, and (3) 152 cases from Spring 1995.
 Variables in this dataset include if the case was filed, type of
 charges, number of prior misdemeanors, number of prior felonies,
 number of misdemeanors after, number of felonies after, number of
 felony convictions, number of misdemeanor convictions, number of
 subpoenas, number of judicial body attachment orders, whether the
 victim was cooperative, if the victim testified, method of
 disposition, type of disposition, time to disposition, time to
 sentencing, sentencing conditions, if the defendant received jail or
 prison time, if the defendant received probation time, number of
 months incarcerated, number of months on probation, and several date
 variables. Additional variables provide the sex of the defendant, the
 relationship between the defendant and the victim, if the victim was
injured, if the victim was intoxicated, and use of a weapon.

Tags: case-processing, court-system, disposition-legal, domestic-violence, trial-procedures, violence-against-women
Organization: Department of Justice
Assessing Local Legal Culture:  Practitioner Norms in Four Criminal Courts, 1979

This study attempts to operationalize the concept of local
 legal culture by examining differences in the processing of twelve
 hypothetical criminal cases in four criminal courts. Questionnaires
 asking how these hypothetical cases should best be handled were
 administered to judges, district attorneys, and defense attorneys in
 four cities: Bronx County (New York City), New York, Detroit,
 Michigan, Miami, Florida, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In each city,
 the presiding judge, prosecutor, and head of the public defender's
 office were informed of the project. Questionnaires were distributed
 to prosecuting attorneys and public defenders by their supervisors.
 Judges were contacted in person or given questionnaires with a cover
 letter from the presiding judge. All questionnaires were completed
 anonymously and returned separately by respondents. The variables
 include number of years the respondent had been in the criminal
 justice system, preferred mode of disposition and of sentencing for
 each of the twelve cases, and the respondents' predictions of the
probability of conviction in each case.

Tags: attorneys, court-cases, courtroom-proceedings, courts, disposition-legal, judges, legal-systems, sentencing
Organization: Department of Justice