Steve Pierson, ASA Director of Science Policy

The National Institute of Justice is the scientific research, development, and evaluation agency of the US Department of Justice. It provides objective, independent, and evidence-based knowledge and tools to support criminal justice and other agencies and initiatives. It also assesses programs, policies, and technologies, sharing its research through conferences, reports, and the media.

Each year, NIJ identifies needed topical research in the physical and social sciences, solicits proposals from universities and other research institutions to conduct that research, and awards grants to fund the selected proposals.

In fiscal year 2024, NIJ will support an array of new research to enhance knowledge of contemporary crime and justice issues through science. A representative sample of coming research project areas includes the following:

• The impact of technologies on forensic science applications
• The National Institute of Justice’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program
• Effectiveness of strategies to increase use of evidence-based policies and practices
• Improvements in measuring community perceptions of public safety

Data-driven science is at the heart of NIJ’s work. Since 1978, the institute has helped construct an archive of hundreds of data sets from projects funded through grant programs. It partners with two other Office of Justice Programs agencies—the Bureau of Justice Statistics and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention—to support the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data.

NIJ Priorities

NIJ priorities include the following:

• Fostering rigorous and inclusive research to promote safer communities and more equitable justice systems
• Elevating studies that apply a racial equity lens
• Emphasizing evaluations of technology implementation in the field
• Encouraging interdisciplinary research that includes both quantitative and qualitative inquiries
• Ensuring research evidence translates into actionable information to promote change in the field

Representative 2024 Research Solicitations

Graduate Research Fellowship Program
The solicitation will invite applications for doctoral research related to preventing and controlling crime and ensuring the fair and impartial administration of criminal or juvenile justice in the United States.

Effectiveness of Strategies to Increase Use of Evidence-Based Policies and Practices
The solicitation will seek proposals for rigorous demonstration and research projects that further the impact of existing crime and justice research evidence.

Research on the Impact of Technologies on Forensic Science Applications
The solicitation will seek proposals to study how technologies affect criminal justice systems or how implementation of forensic laboratory programs or practices affect outcomes. NIJ is interested in evaluating technologies, methods, and processes to understand their impact on forensic backlog reduction, capacity enhancement, cost/benefit, resource development, and case closure efficiency.

Research on Measuring Community Perceptions
The solicitation will seek applications for research on and demonstration projects of improved approaches for measuring community perceptions of public safety–related issues in survey methods and associated sampling designs and analysis of existing data sources. NIJ is interested in improved methods to produce representative estimates across intra-city areas that are cost-effective, frequently deployable, and scalable for use in municipalities of various sizes.

Other Solicitations

Other 2024 NIJ solicitations subjects include the following:

• Evaluation of Bureau of Justice Assistance State Crisis Intervention Program
• Evaluation of Office of Justice Programs Community-Based Violence Intervention Initiative
• Field-Initiated Action Research Partnerships
• Longitudinal Research on Delinquency and Crime
• National Baseline Study (flagship of NIJ’s Violence Against Indian Women Program)
• National Juvenile Court Data Archive
• Novel Psychoactive Substance Discovery, Education, and Reporting Center
• Process and Implementation Evaluation of the Bureau of Justice Assistance Safer Together Program
• Research and Development in Forensic Science for Criminal Justice Purposes
• Research and Evaluation for the Testing and Interpretation of Physical Evidence in Publicly Funded Forensic Laboratories
• Research and Evaluation of Services for Victims of Crime
• Research and Evaluation on 911, Alternative Hotlines, and Alternative Responder Models
• Research and Evaluation on Corrections
• Research and Evaluation on Desistance from Crime 
• Research and Evaluation on Drugs and Crime: Money Laundering, Firearms, and Human Trafficking Nexus
• Research and Evaluation on Firearms Violence and Mass Shootings
• Research and Evaluation on Hate Crimes 
• Research and Evaluation on Policing 
• Research and Evaluation on School Safety
• Research and Evaluation on the Administration of Justice: Prosecution Practice, Justice, Case Tracking, and Workforce
• Research and Evaluation on Violence Against Women 
• Research on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Topics 
• Research on Multidisciplinary Teams 
• Research on School-Based Hate Crime 
• Research on the Abuse, Neglect, and Financial Exploitation of Older Adults
• W.E.B. Du Bois Program of Research on Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Justice System