This proposal requests renewal funding to support the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) archiving, dissemination, user support, training, and other supporting activities at the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the Nation?s resource for research data about crime and the criminal justice system. For this budget period, National Archive of Criminal Justice Data work will be organized according to three major task areas.
1.Task 1 covers the archival development of data pertinent to the study of crime and the criminal justice system. Archival development includes the identification, acquisition, and processing of major crime and justice data collections supported by Federal funds, other data collections which form the basis of important studies of crime or the criminal justice system, collections of data in the area of drugs and crime, and international criminology studies. Processing of these data collections include producing coherent, well-documented, user-friendly electronic files, which we make available for further analysis through our Internet website and preserve for historical purposes. Task 1 also involves the continued development of data products as well as the improvement of Internet based search, explore and extract capabilities.
2.Task 2 is external relations, which covers the provision of technical assistance and consultation through varied mechanisms with potential and ongoing users of the NACJD data and supporting materials.
3.Task 3 is the Summer Training Program. This program advances the professional development of researchers and practitioners through an intensive course covering the quantitative analysis of BJS?s crime and justice data housed at the NACJD.
4.Task 4 involves conducting Disclosure Review activities for BJS data sets. This task is included to address the increasing concerns regarding assuring that the identities of subjects who are included in data collected for research and statistical purposes are protected.
Taken together, these four tasks provide a well-integrated program to stimulate, assist, and advance research about crime and the criminal justice system.