Published by the White House, this report reflects extensive collaboration among federal anti-trafficking experts from across the U.S. government with decades of experience on the front lines of our nation’s fight against human trafficking.  It was also informed by the expertise of survivors, who generously contributed their insights and wisdom to strengthen the U.S. response to human trafficking. This updated National Action Plan reflects the administration’s priority effort to end human trafficking and forced labor in global supply chains. COVID-19 made clear the need to secure our supply chains and make them more transparent and accountable so that we can ensure uninterrupted access to essential goods in times of crisis without fueling corruption, exploitation, and forced labor. 

Published by the United States Sentencing Commission, this report discusses new findings from the commission’s largest recidivism study to date (32,000-plus offenders released in 2010, with an 8-year recidivism study period). The key findings include the following: 

• Firearms offenders recidivated at a higher rate than all other offenders (69 percent and 45 percent, respectively). 
• Firearms offenders have higher recidivism rates than all other offenders in every criminal history category and every age-at-release grouping.
• The recidivism rate remained highly similar to that of federal firearms offenders released in 2005 (68 percent).
• For firearms offenders who were rearrested, the median time to arrest was 16 months. 
• Assault was the most common offense (26 percent) at rearrest. 
   

Published by the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) and funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, this three-day course provides expert guidance in the skills law enforcement officers need to conduct successful online investigations.  Topics include IP addresses and domains, an overview of currently popular online social media platforms, best practices for building an undercover profile, foundational knowledge related to the dark web, and recovery of forensic evidence from the dark web.  Instructors demonstrate both open source and commercially available investigative tools for evidence collection and recovery of forensic artifacts associated with online social networking and online social media.  Automated tools to crawl websites and preserve online evidence are also demonstrated.

When: Monday and Wednesday, December 13, 2021 – December 15, 2021
Time: 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., PT

Published by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), this article discusses the importance of evidence-based policing to support small and rural agencies’ crime-reduction efforts.  Evidence-based policing is the ideal balance between research and professional experience and uses the results of scientific research, evaluation, and analysis for making, assessing, and enforcing policing policies, programs, and procedures. Evidence-based policing practices (EBPPs) are not a one-size-fits-all approach, but instead, allow individual agencies to enhance their existing resources and capabilities by leveraging evaluated strategies.

Published by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), this publication discusses the MHRC.  Since 2005, the MHRC has combined the efforts of criminal justice, public health, and community stakeholders to gain a better understanding of homicide through strategic problem analysis, develop innovative and effective responses and prevention strategies, and help focus prevention and intervention resources.  Driving this work is the understanding that homicides are preventable. The MHRC received a COPS Office grant to develop a training on how to establish and operate a homicide review commission, published by the COPS Office as the National Homicide Review Training and Technical Assistance Project:  Homicide Review Training Manual.  This white paper reviews the development, implementation, and assessment of the site-based trainings on which the manual is based.