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DOJ Press Release letterhead

  • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
  • Friday, October 7, 2011
  • Contact: Office of Justice Programs
  • Telephone: (202) 307-0703
  • ojp.gov

Weekly News Brief

BJS Releases Contacts between Police and the Public, 2008 Report - According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 40 million U.S. residents age 16 or older, or about 17 percent of the population, had a face-to-face contact with a police officer in 2008. This is a continuing decrease in contact between police and the public, down from 19 percent of residents who had contact with the police in 2005 and 21 percent who had contact in 2002. http://www.bjs.gov.

Learn More about OJP's Fiscal Year 2011 Grant Awards Report - Among the recent funding awarded by the Office of Justice Programs, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) announced today the selection of The National Academy of Sciences to study the causes and consequences of high rates of incarceration in the country. Although prior research has been devoted to the subject of incarceration in the United States, there has not been a recent assessment of the research nor an outline of the major unanswered research questions. The National Research Council's Committee on Law and Justice will form a panel to fill this void. The panel will assess existing research on the drivers of incarceration over the past 30-40 years, examine the consequences of current U.S. incarceration policies, and consider policy alternatives to incarceration, in terms of their effects on public safety and their costs. More details about these and other Fiscal Year 2011 grants are available at: https://ojp.gov/funding/FY2011_awards_solicitation.htm

OVC Grants Support to Victim Services - The Justice Department's Office for Victims of Crime awarded more than $3.4 million to support National Field-Generated Training, Technical Assistance, and Demonstration Projects focusing on improving the capacity of victim service providers and practitioners in helping crime victims. Focus areas for these grants include: victims of child pornography; responding to victims of sexual violence within correctional settings; long-term mental health and other consequences of mass violence; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer/questioning (LGBTQ) crime victims' access to mainstream victim services. Additional OVC grants and information is available at www.ovc.gov

Upcoming Events:

The 2011 Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention National Conference on Children's Justice and Safety, October 12-14, at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., is open to the media. For more information, contact Starr Stepp, 202-598-9457. http://www.ojjdp.gov/2011conference/2011ConferenceProgram.pdf.

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