Published by the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, this press release discusses the rate of violent crime in the United States. The rate of violence is based on data reported by victims in the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). During the 15-year period from 2005 to 2019, the rate of violent hate-crime victimizations fluctuated, ranging from about 0.6 to 1.1 per 1,000. On average, U.S. residents experienced approximately 246,900 hate-crime victimizations each year between 2005 and 2019. The number of hate crimes ranged from about 173,600 to 305,390 during this period. The total number of violent and property hate-crime victimizations did not change significantly from 2005 to 2019.

Hosted by the Justice Clearinghouse and funded by the National Police Foundation, this webinar discusses the prevalence of gun violence in our communities. Law enforcement agencies are tasked with confronting a variety of serious incidents to provide public safety, as well as addressing the problems that lead to and promote violence, such as firearms trafficking and illegal firearms possession. Beyond injuries and fatalities, gun violence affects our society’s overall well-being and the quality of life for all. Much of it takes place in at-risk or underserved communities, and gun violence incidents are often unreported or go unnoticed. The rise of gun violence in the United States is becoming a larger and more costly issue than many realize. In this webinar, a panel of academics and policing experts will discuss innovative tools and strategies for reducing gun violence in the United States, stemming from the Police Foundation’s gun and violence-related research and projects.

When: Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Time: 1:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m., ET

Hosted by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and the North Carolina Victim Assistance Network, this webinar is designed to help participants better meet the challenges and opportunities of homicide survival by enhancing their understanding and skills for working with this unique set of crime survivors. This webinar is most appropriate for those with intermediate or advanced experience and training in working with crime victims but is helpful also to beginning advocates. The two-part workshop will provide an overview of how the emotional, behavioral, and relational functioning of co-victims of homicide is impacted by the complicated, traumatic grief that follows in the aftermath of a murder and by other complicating factors—ranging from the specifics of a particular homicide to interactions with law enforcement and court professionals to media coverage, and more.

When: Tuesday – Wednesday, September 28–29, 2021
Time: 10:00 a.m., ET

Hosted by the National Institute of Justice, the Forensic Technology Center of Excellence, and the Department of Justice, this webinar discusses the conclusions that can be drawn from footwear evidence reports. The challenges associated with drafting these conclusions include (1) accurately conveying the evidence and limitations, (2) articulating discrimination values of an association in terms of the population of possible sources, and (3) qualifying associations appropriately. To overcome these challenges, footwear evidence conclusions must be written to fit each individual examination. This can be a difficult task for most examiners, since footwear casework may be a second discipline and/or only encountered occasionally rather than routinely.

When: Thursday, September 30, 2021
Time: 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m., ET

Published by the National Gang Center and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), this guide provides law enforcement leaders with an overview of the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model, which represents a framework for addressing youth gang problems. This guide is an evidence-based framework for the coordination of multiple data-driven, anti-gang and violence-reduction strategies to address serious, violent, and entrenched youth street gang problems. The Model combines prevention, intervention, and suppression tactics that reach beyond enforcement to address the root causes of criminal gang activity within a community. This framework provides a mechanism to pull together disjointed, fragmented approaches into an organized plan of action.