National Institute of Justice: Strengthening Science and Advancing Justice

• NCJ Number: 254334
• Date Published: November 2019
• Length: 3 pages
• Agencies: NIJ
• Publication Type: Issue Overview

Annotation

This 6-minute video describes the mission of the U.S. Justice Department's National Institute of Justice (NIJ), highlighting body armor research, forensic science advancements, human trafficking work, and the Policing Strategic Plan.

Abstract

NIJ's mission is described by a panel of NIJ leaders with responsibility for and involvement in various aspects of NIJ's mission. The narrator first describes the overall NIJ mission as the research development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, which means it is dedicated to improving the knowledge and understanding of crime and justice issues and to providing leadership in implementing research knowledge in criminal justice practices. Panel members speak of NIJ's development of the evaluation and development of standards for body armor to improve officer safety, ways in which NIJ has advanced the forensic science disciplines, how NIJ has addressed human trafficking in the United States, and how NIJ efforts have improved law enforcement procedures to make them more effective through the implementation of evidence-based procedures proven effective by scientific evaluations.