The vast majority of criminal defendants in the United States are too poor to afford a lawyer, yet adequate funding and resources for defense counsel remains an elusive goal. The U.S. Department of Justice (the Department) seeks effective, evidence-based solutions to problems in indigent defense so that the nation can deliver on its constitutionally guaranteed promise to provide legal representation to people accused of crime who cannot afford it.

OJJdP provides national leadership, coordination, and the resources to prevent and respond to juvenile delinquency and victimization. OJJdP supports states and communities in their efforts to develop and implement effective and coordinated prevention and intervention programs and to improve the juvenile justice system so that it protects public safety, holds offenders accountable, and provides treatment and rehabilitative services tailored to the needs of juveniles and their families.

NIJ is the research, development and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. It helps criminal justice professionals perform better on the job by conducting basic and applied research, assessing new technologies, promoting innovations and evaluating programs to learn what works and what does not work.

Law enforcement executives, academics, attorneys, and federal government representatives addressed the different effective strategies that have been developed to combat these problems, including various management and personnel decisions, videotaping suspect interviews, considering the availability of eyewitness identification options (simultaneous lineups versus sequential lineups), DNA analysis, and using cold case units and crime analysts to increase clearance rates. Case studies presented at the conference highlighted both the strengths and weaknesses associated with various investigation...

This report describes the relationship between nonfatal violent victimization and household poverty level as measured by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Data are from the National Crime Victimization Survey. In 2008-12- Persons in poor households at or below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) (39.8 per 1,000) had more than double the rate of violent victimization as persons in high-income households (16.9 per 1,000). Persons in poor households had a higher rate of violence involving a firearm (3.5 per 1,000) compared to persons above the FPL (0.8-2.5 per 1,000). The overall...

Investigating allegations of sexual abuse of children is very difficult for law enforcement. Successful resolution of these cases is often hampered by victim reluctance or inability to communicate as well as the scarcity of corroborating evidence. While the consequences of all abuse of children are of great concern to us, sexual abuse can be particularly devastating, especially when a sexually transmitted disease is part of the tragic legacy of violation. This guide is designed to present additional investigative techniques, utilizing the presence of a sexually transmitted disease, which will...

This policy guide will assist correctional administrators, medical and mental health staff, training coordinators, line staff, and policymakers as they craft policies to address the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals (LGBTI) in custodial settings. It may also help agencies that are paying greater attention to the needs of LGBTI individuals as they work to implement the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) standards, which require correctional agencies to safely screen, classify, and house lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender inmates as well as those...

Threat assessment or protective intelligence is the process of gathering and assessing information about persons who may have the interest, motive, intention, and capability of mounting attacks against public officials and figures. Gauging the potential threat to and vulnerability of a targeted individual is key to preventing violence. Among criminal justice functions, threat assessment holds great promise for determining vulnerability and guiding interventions in potentially lethal situations. The primary goal of every protective intelligence investigation is to prevent an attack on a...

Many of the recommendations in this report are addressed to Congress and executive branch agencies outside the Department of Justice because solutions to the dire situation faced by AI/AN children must be comprehensive and will require efforts beyond the Department of Justice. Therefore, the Committee recommends that the Attorney General work with the Legislative and executive branches of government to implement the recommendations. The recommendations are intended to serve as a blueprint for preventing Al/AN children's exposure to violence and for mitigating the negative effects experienced...

For the FBI and its partners, 2012 was a year that reminded us once again of the seriousness of the security threats facing our nation. During the year, extremists plotted to attack-unsuccessfully, thanks to the work of our Joint Terrorism Task Forces-the U.S. Capitol, the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and other landmarks on U.S. soil. Tragically, on the 11th anniversary of 9/11, a hateful attack in Benghazi took the lives of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. In the cyber realm, a rising tide of hackers took electronic aim at global cyber infrastructure, causing untold...