AndreaBozzo/ceres-open-data-index huggingface dataset:
Capturing Human Trafficking Victimization Through Crime Reporting, United States, 2013-2016

Despite public attention to the problem of human trafficking, it has proven difficult to measure the problem. Improving the quality of information about human trafficking is critical to developing sound anti-trafficking policy. In support of this effort, in 2013 the Federal Bureau of Investigation incorporated human trafficking offenses in the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. Despite this achievement, there are many reasons to expect the UCR program to underreport human trafficking. Law enforcement agencies struggle to identify human trafficking and distinguishing it from other crimes. Additionally, human trafficking investigations may not be accurately classified in official data sources. Finally, human trafficking presents unique challenges to summary and incident-based crime reporting methods. For these reasons, it is important to understand how agencies identify and report human trafficking cases within the UCR program and what part of the population of human trafficking victims in a community are represented by UCR data. This study provides critical information to improve law enforcement identification and reporting of human trafficking.
Coding criminal incidents investigated as human trafficking offenses in three US cities, supplemented by interviews with law and social service stakeholders in these locations, this study answers the following research questions:
How are human trafficking cases identified and reported by the police?
What sources of information about human trafficking exist outside of law enforcement data?
What is the estimated disparity between actual instances of human trafficking and the number of human trafficking offenses reported to the UCR?

Tags: crime, crime-reporting, human-trafficking, law-enforcement, law-enforcement-agencies, police, police-reports, service-providers, sex-trafficking, victimization
Organization: Department of Justice
Evaluation of the Bureau of Justice Assistance Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, United States, 2018

Since 2015, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) has funded sites to engage in reforms intended to improve the national response to sexual assault cases. The goals of this initiative are to (1) create a coordinated community response that ensures just resolution to unsubmitted sexual assault kit (SAK) cases through a victim-centered approach and (2) build jurisdictions' capacity to prevent the development of conditions that lead to high numbers of unsubmitted sexual assault kits. Site efforts to address these issues include agencies such as law enforcement, prosecution, forensic laboratories, and victim advocacy service organizations. Westat was awarded a contract by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to assess components of BJA's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI). The study includes (1) an evaluability assessment of 17 sites to determine their readiness for an evaluation, (2) a process evaluation and system reform assessment of the 17 sites, (3) a feasibility assessment of using case level data for an outcome evaluation, and analysis of a subset of unsubmitted SAK cases to identify how characteristics of incidents, offenders, and victims are associated with case processing decisions and outcomes, and (4) development of a long-term outcome evaluation plan.
Two sources of data are archived with NAJCD: (1) coded qualitative data from primarily on-site interviews the Westat Team conducted in 2018 with stakeholders from 17 of the fiscal year (FY) 2015 SAKI grantees and 2 private lab facilities and 2) quantitative case-level data from the 2 FY 2015 SAKI grantees on SAKI cases associated with previously unsubmitted sexual assault kits that were determined to contain foreign DNA or biological evidence through laboratory testing. The interview data file contains coded data from 172 interviews the research team conducted with one or more agency representatives regarding their organization's goals, strategies, and activities for processing sexual assault kits, and associated lessons learned, challenges, and expected outcomes.  The quantitative case-level data file includes case-level information on 576 sexual assault kits determined to have DNA and associated cases included in the 2 sites' SAKI inventories. The case-level data captures information on case or offense-level information (e.g., date of offense, date offense reported to police, number of victims and suspects involved, investigation and prosecution activities), victim-level information (e.g., victim age, sex, race, participation in investigation), and suspect-level information (e.g., suspect's age, race, sex, criminal history).

Tags: criminal-justice-programs, evaluation, evidence, forensic-sciences, offenses, police-records, program-evaluation, sexual-assault, victim-rights, victims
Organization: Department of Justice
Development and Validation of a Screening Protocol to Identify Elder Abuse in United States Emergency Departments, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Camden, New Jersey, and Jacksonville, Florida, 2018-2019

This study was conducted to address elder abuse within emergency departments in the United States. The aim of this study was to develop a screening protocol or more specifically, an emergency department based tool to discover this specific abuse and try to eliminate it.

This emergency department senior aid tool was created in two phases: the development phase and the validation phase. The purpose of the development phase was to test the reliability of this tool in detecting elder abuse in ages 65 and older individuals. On the other hand, the validation phase was to test the tool at three different locations: UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Cooper Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, and University of Florida Health in Jacksonville, Florida.


Tags: elder-abuse, emergency-departments, health-care
Organization: Department of Justice
Preventing and Controlling Corporate Crime: The Dual Role of Corporate Boards and Legal Sanctions, United States, 1996-2013

This project consists of secondary analysis material (syntax only, no data). The original study that the material pertains to examines two distinct but related types of corporate crime prevention and control mechanisms--one that rests on firm governance (specifically, the Board of Directors) and the other on formal legal interventions. Specifically, the study examines whether (ceteris paribus) firms with more gender diversity on their boards are less involved in offending than firms whose boards are less diverse and whether changes in board diversity over time affect firm offending patterns. Of additional interest is how firms respond to legal discovery and punishment. Do they change their governance structures (i.e., become more diverse) due to formal legal discovery? Are firms generally deterred from reoffending (recidivism) when discovered or does deterrence depend on the government's response to offenders? In particular, are certain regimes (criminal, civil, or regulatory) more successful at crime control than others? Relevant data are collected from a variety of secondary sources, including corporate financial, statistical, and governance information. These data are then linked to cases of corporate offending (accounting fraud, bribery, environmental and anti-competitive) for 3,327 US based companies between 1996 and 2013. Analyses-NIJ-5.21.2019--2-.do: Syntax (Stata) used to create type of offense count; domain of processing (civil, criminal, regulatory); offense distribution (by corporate year), female board membership (count and percent); Reoffending (by enforcement type and governance characteristics).

Tags: bribery, corporate-behavior, corporate-crime, corporate-responsibility, corporate-sentencing, corporations, corruption, environmental-regulations, gender, white-collar-crime
Organization: Department of Justice
Anti-LGBTQ Hate Crimes in Miami-Dade County, Florida, 2005-2019

The goal of this study is to enhance public safety and community well-being through effective identification, investigation, and prosecution of anti-LGBTQ hate crimes in Miami. The investigators examined victimization experiences, victim and offender characteristics, crime reporting outcomes, victimization consequences, case processing, as well as the criminal justice system's challenges and opportunities for reform. The project focuses on the hate crime victimization within Miami's Latine community.

Tags: crime-impact, gays-and-lesbians, hate-crimes, prosecution, transgender, victimization
Organization: Department of Justice
Improving the Production and Use of Forensic Science, 5 U.S. counties, 2006-2009

This study collection sought to thoroughly understand the creation, testing, and use of forensic science in five jurisdictions across the country. A random sample was selected of recent criminal cases in the following jurisdictions and tracked from investigation to adjudication to understand how forensic evidence functions:

Sacramento County, CA: 990 cases
Segwick County, KS: 936 cases
Allegheny County, PA: 978 cases
Bexar County (San Antonio), TX: 936 cases
King County, WA: 892 cases

The Principal Investigator sought answers to the following seven primary research questions:

How often is forensic evidence collected and analyzed and how is it used pre-arrest?
What are the outcomes of forensic evidence testing?
What is the effect of forensic evidence on arrest and charging?
How does forensic evidence affect the plea-bargaining process?
What effect does forensic evidence have on conviction and sentencing outcomes?
Does the turnaround time for analysis of forensic evidence have any impact on case disposition?
Does the institutional configuration of the crime laboratory have any effect on its productivity?

Data for the following types of forensic testing are included in this data collection: hair, fibers, glass, paint, gas chromatography / mass spectrometry (GC/MS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy / energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), physical match, drug identification, toxicology, serology, combined DNA index system (CODIS), DNA short tandem repeat (Y-STR), blood pattern, test fire, and comparison scope.

Tags: aggravated-assault, arrests, burglary, convictions-law, crime, evidence, forensic-sciences, murder, rape, robbery, trial-courts, victims
Organization: Department of Justice
Projecting Violent Re-Offending in a Parole Population: Developing a Real-Time Forecasting Procedure to Inform Parole Decision-Making, Pennsylvania, 2012-2014

The University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole (PBPP), began developing a violent forecast model utilizing the machine learning procedure random forest. By the spring of 2013, the forecasts were provided to decision makers prior to parole interviews. The violent forecast model (VFM) measures the extent to which offenders are likely to reoffend as indicated by future arrest. The VFM is a violence classification forecast and not an individual case prediction regarding offender behavior. Purpose The purpose of this research was to evaluate the impact of introducing forecasts of "future dangerousness" into PBPP's decision making process during parole interviews. The researcher anticipated that having available a sufficiently reliable forecast, particularly within the violent category, would reduce the likelihood of a parole release. The null hypothesis tested was that there would be no difference in parole release decisions when comparing two similar groups of offenders where during one group of parole interviews the decision maker had a forecast available and the other group of interviews there was not a forecast available.

Tags: machine-learning, offenders, parole, recidivism, violence
Organization: Department of Justice
The Effect of Prior Police Contact on Victimization Reporting: Results From the Police-Public Contact and National Crime Victimization Surveys, United States, 2002-2011

This study examines whether or not prior experiences with the police, both directly and indirectly through the experiences of others, can influence one's decision to report a crime. Data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) was linked with the Police-Public Contact Survey (PPCS) to construct a dataset of the police-related experiences of crime victims and non-victims. Variables include information on the prevalence, frequency, and the nature of respondents' encounters with the police in the prior year, as well as respondents' personal and household victimization experiences that occurred after the administration of the PPCS, including whether the crime was reported to the police. Demographic variables include age, race, gender, education, and socioeconomic status.
The ICPSR's holdings for both the NCVS and the PPCS are available in the NCVS series.

Tags: crime, crime-reporting, police-citizen-interactions, police-community-relations, victimization
Organization: Department of Justice
Interpersonal Violence and Misconduct in Jails: An Empirical Investigation of Adverse Outcomes in the Los Angeles County Jail System, California, 2000-2018

 The Interpersonal Violence and Institutional Misconduct in Jails Study is a longitudinal evaluation of administrative data collected from the Los Angeles County Jail System. This study includes aggregate monthly information on the number and rate of incidents of interpersonal violence and serious institutional misconduct in the Los Angeles County Jail System over an eight-year time period (January 2010 to December 2017). This investigation also includes information on the development and validation of two separate risk assessment tools--the Inmate Risk Assessment for Perpetration (IRAP) and the Inmate Risk Assessment for Victimization (IRAV)--that were designed to help authorities proactively identify the perpetrators and victims of interpersonal violence in jail, respectively. The subjects used to construct and test these instruments were an admission cohort of all adjudicated inmates entering the Los Angeles County jail system in 2016 (N = 104,919). This population of inmates was randomly assigned into one of four groups. The first was the construction sample (n = 26,404), which was used to create the two risk assessment scales, and the other three served as cross-validation samples, which each served to evaluate the predictive accuracy and reliability of these instruments. These data include individual-level information on inmate demographics, criminal history, and other measures of institutional behavior. 

Tags: institutional-misconduct, interpersonal-conflict, jail-inmates, risk-assessment, violence
Organization: Department of Justice
Understanding Online Hate Speech as a Motivator and Predictor of Hate Crime, Los Angeles, California, 2017-2018

 In the United States, a number of challenges prevent an accurate assessment of the prevalence of hate crimes in different areas of the country. These challenges create huge gaps in knowledge about hate crime--who is targeted, how, and in what areas--which in turn hinder appropriate policy efforts and allocation of resources to the prevention of hate crime. In the absence of high-quality hate crime data, online platforms may provide information that can contribute to a more accurate estimate of the risk of hate crimes in certain places and against certain groups of people. Data on social media posts that use hate speech or internet search terms related to hate against specific groups has the potential to enhance and facilitate timely understanding of what is happening offline, outside of traditional monitoring (e.g., police crime reports). This study assessed the utility of Twitter data to illuminate the prevalence of hate crimes in the United States with the goals of (i) addressing the lack of reliable knowledge about hate crime prevalence in the U.S. by (ii) identifying and analyzing online hate speech and (iii) examining the links between the online hate speech and offline hate crimes. 
 The project drew on four types of data: recorded hate crime data, social media data, census data, and data on hate crime risk factors. An ecological framework and Poisson regression models were adopted to study the explicit link between hate speech online and hate crimes offline. Risk terrain modeling (RTM) was used to further assess the ability to identify places at higher risk of hate crimes offline.

Tags: disability, gender, hate-crimes, hate-speech, internet, race, religion, sexual-preference, social-media
Organization: Department of Justice
Law Enforcement Officers Safety and Wellness: A Multi-Level Study, United States, 2017-2020

The objective of this study was to  assess the role of traumatic exposures, operational and organizational stressors, and personal behaviors on law enforcement safety and wellness. The goal was to provide the necessary data
to help researchers, Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), and policymakers design policies and programs to address risk factors for Law Enforcement Officers' (LEOs) wellness and safety outcomes. The project objectives were to identify profiles of LEAs who are using best practices in addressing officer safety and wellness (OSAW); determine the extent to which specific occupational, organizational, and personal stressors distinguish OSAW outcomes identify whether modifiable factors such as coping, social support, and healthy lifestyles moderate the relationship between stressors and OSAW outcomes; and investigate which LEA policies/programs have the potential to moderate OSAW outcomes.

Tags: law-enforcement, law-enforcement-agencies, police-departments, police-safety
Organization: Department of Justice
Recover Me if You Can: Assessing Services to Victims of Identity Theft, United States, 2017-2019

This multi-phase study was conducted to discover and learn more about the services offered to victims of identity theft and to evaluate the effect of these services on those who experienced this crime.
The first phase of this study focused on the effects of identity theft services on its direct victims. This was accomplished by combining available data from the Identity Theft Supplement (ITS) with survey data associated with the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC).
The second phase of this study was conducted as multiple focus groups where qualitative data was collected to help in understanding more about identity crime victimization. The participants that attended these focus groups were organizations and individuals who provided insight on the type of interactions within these identity crime services.
The third phase of this study was to examine the level of efficiency of the ITRC victim call center by performing interviews with the victims.
Demographic variables include gender, race, age, ethnicity, education, marital status, and income.

Tags: crime, fraud, identity-theft, victims
Organization: Department of Justice
Optimizing the Use of Video Technology to Improve Criminal Justice Outcomes, Milwaukee, WI, 2017-2018

The goal of this project was to analyze the collaboration between the Urban Institute and Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) to develop a plan to optimize MPD's public surveillance system. This was done through a process and impact evaluation of the MPD's strategy to improve operations, install new cameras, and integrate video analytic (VA) technologies centered around automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) and high-definition cameras connected to gunshot detection technology. The unit of analysis was two neighborhoods in Milwaukee, identified as "focus areas" by the researchers, where VA efforts were intensified. Additionally, all block groups within Milwaukee were included to measure crime before and after intervention, along with all intersections and block groups that received VA technologies against control groups. Variables include crimes based on date and location, along with whether or not locations had VA technologies. The following neighborhood demographic variables were included from the United States Census Bureau: resided in a different home, renters, under age eighteen, black residents, female headed households, public assistance recipients, below poverty line, unemployment, Hispanic residents, and foreign born.

Tags: arrest-rates, crime, crime-control-policies, crime-prevention, police, video-surveillance
Organization: Department of Justice
The Creation of Muhajirat in America: Social Media as a Platform for Crafting Gender-Specific Interventions for the Domestic Radicalization of Women, 5 countries, 1970-2018

This study examines the radicalization of Western women to extremist violence, both through the creation of a moral-situational-action risk model and the examination of their responses to various types of online propaganda. The Moral-Situational-Action Risk Model for Extremist Violence (MSA-RMEV) was developed using situational action theory from criminology and violence risk practice literature. The MSA-RMEV revolves around three domains reflective of propensity, mobilization, and capacity building, geared towards providing a violence risk assessment that can assist the intelligence community in preventing future acts of violence.
A sample of women who self-identified as conservative, liberal, and Muslim were exposed to jihadist, alt-right, and alt-left online propaganda. Physiological responses and self-report assessments were recorded. Eye-gaze, pupil dilation, galvanic skin response, heart rate, and facial emotions were documented, along with women's judgment of their emotional, cognitive, and arousal states, while viewing propaganda.
Based on their results, women were categorized as high-risk, medium-risk, or low-risk for violence. Additionally, numerous variables were created to identify participant's beliefs and behavior related to radicalization. Beliefs included religiosity, political affiliation, the presence of moral emotions, sacred values, developmental maturity, and militant thinking. Behaviors included group affiliations, extent of involvement in extremist activities, and presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter. Demographic variables such as age, marital status, number of children, race, ethnicity, country of origin, and educational status were included.

Tags: extremism, islam, political-affiliation, propaganda, risk-assessment, social-media, violence, women
Organization: Department of Justice
Effects of Marijuana Legalization on Law Enforcement and Crime, Washington, 2004-2018

This study sought to examine the effects of cannabis legalization on crime and law enforcement in Washington State. In 2012 citizens voted to legalize possession of small amounts of cannabis, with the first licensed retail outlets opening on July 1, 2014. Researchers crafted their analysis around two questions. First, how are law enforcement agencies handling crime and offenders, particularly involving marijuana, before and after legalization? Second, what are the effects of marijuana legalization on crime, crime clearance, and other policing activities statewide, as well as in urban, rural, tribal, and border areas?
Research participants and crime data were collected from 14 police organizations across Washington, as well as Idaho police organizations situated by the Washington-Idaho border where marijuana possession is illegal. Additional subjects were recruited from other police agencies across Washington, prosecutors, and officials from the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, and the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators for focus groups and individual interviews. Variables included dates of calls for service from 2004 through 2018, circumstances surrounding calls for service, geographic beats, agency, whether calls were dispatch or officer initiated, and whether the agency was in a jurisdiction with legal cannabis.

Tags: crime-statistics, drug-legalization, law-enforcement-agencies, marijuana
Organization: Department of Justice