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agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. Created by the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act
of 1968, as amended, NIJ is authorized to support research, evaluation, and demonstration programs,
development of technology, and both national and international information dissemination. Specific
mandates of the Act direct NIJ to:
Sponsor special projects, and research and development programs, that will improve and strengthen
the criminal justice system and reduce or prevent crime.
Conduct national demonstration projects that employ innovative or promising approaches for
improving criminal justice.
Develop new technologies to fight crime and improve criminal justice.
Evaluate the effectiveness of criminal justice programs and identify programs that promise to be
successful if continued or repeated.
Recommend actions that can be taken by Federal, State, and local governments as well as by private
organizations to improve criminal justice.
Carry out research on criminal behavior.
Develop new methods of crime prevention and reduction of crime and delinquency.
In recent years, NIJ has greatly expanded its initiatives, the result of the Violent Crime Control and Law
Enforcement Act of 1994 (the Crime Act), partnerships with other Federal agencies and private
foundations, advances in technology, and a new international focus. Some examples of these new
initiatives:
New research and evaluation is exploring key issues in community policing, violence against
women, sentencing reforms, and specialized courts such as drug courts.
Dual-use technologies are being developed to support national defense and local law enforcement
needs.
Four regional National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Centers and a Border
Research and Technology Center have joined the National Center in Rockville, Maryland.
The causes, treatment, and prevention of violence against women and violence within the family are
being investigated in cooperation with several agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services.
NIJ s links with the international community are being strengthened through membership in the
United Nations network of criminological institutes; participation in developing the U.N. Criminal
Justice Information Network; initiation of UNOJUST (U.N. Online Justice Clearinghouse), which
electronically links the institutes to the U.N. network; and establishment of an NIJ International
Center.
The NIJ-administered criminal justice information clearinghouse, the world s largest, has improved
its online capability.
The Institute s Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) program has been expanded and enhanced. Renamed
ADAM (Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring), the program will increase the number of drug-testing
sites, and its role as a platform for studying drug-related crime will grow.
NIJ s new Crime Mapping Research Center will provide training in computer mapping technology,
collect and archive geocoded crime data, and develop analytic software.
The Institute s program of intramural research has been expanded and enhanced.
The Institute Director, who is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, establishes the
Institute s objectives, guided by the priorities of the Office of Justice Programs, the Department of
Justice, and the needs of the criminal justice field. The Institute actively solicits the views of criminal
justice professionals and researchers in the continuing search for answers that inform public
policymaking in crime and justice.
For information on the National Institute of Justice, please contact:
National Criminal Justice Reference Service
Box 6000
Rockville, MD 20849 6000
800 851 3420
e-mail: askncjrs@ncjrs.org
You can view or obtain an electronic version of this document from the
NCJRS Justice Information Center World Wide Web site.
To access this site, go to http://www.ncjrs.org
If you have questions, call or e-mail NCJRS.
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