Encouraging Innovation in Corrections Chapter 7. Empowering Communities Chapter 8. Assisting Crime Victims Chapter 9. Two major indicators released in Fiscal Year 1996 showed that crime is declining for the first time in a decade. But the crime rate in America is still too high.
Crime is still of great concern to the American public, and continued violence fuels public fears.
Our nation faces the challenges of continued high rates of gang and youth violence, the need to save at-risk kids, criminal activity arising in the context of new technologies and the virtual disappearance of international boundaries, and the problems of gun violence and family violence in a culture that too often seems to foster both. But through concerted, comprehensive approaches to crime control some communities are reducing crime and improving the quality of life for residents. We quickly hired and trained over 150 new employees to implement these new initiatives and to ensure that our grant programs would be administered as quickly and efficiently as possible. OJP is working with communities to tackle these and other crime-related problems. In collaboration with other Justice Department and federal, state, and local officials, we're helping communities undertake the process of identifying public safety problems, creating partnerships within the community, and connecting the different parts of the criminal justice system.