The Crime and Justice Research Alliance (CJRA), a website featuring experts on major criminal justice subjects and information on new criminology research, is now being hosted by the National Criminal Justice Association (NCJA) after eight years of sponsorship by major academic organizations.
NCJA announced the shift last week at its annual symposium, held this year with two other national groups in Long Beach, Ca.
NCJA's announcement said the site's goal "is to provide policymakers, practitioners, journalists and the public with direct access to new, objective and relevant research on crime and criminal justice issues."
The website now includes information on more than 100 experts in 22 policy areas.
The expert list was assembled over the years by two groups that began the site, the American Society of Criminology (ASC) and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS). NCJA says it intends to add to the expert roster.
Research mentioned on the site in the past has come from journals published by the two founding organizations. NCJA is likely to begin adding research from additional sources.
ASC stopped supporting the alliance at the end of 2020, opting to hire a communications consultant to promote its own members' research.
ACJS continued to sponsor the website after 2020, eventually agreeing to turn it over to NCJA, which represents state governments on criminal justice issues.
One function being dropped from the alliance's agenda is lobbying government officials to support criminology research. When it was run by the criminology groups, the alliance said it "worked to increase funding for Bureau of Justice Statistics and National Institute of Justice, prevent reductions in authorization levels and assist Members of Congress and Congressional staff in oversight and legislative efforts."
ASC said it has continued its lobbying efforts through the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA), which represents the social and behavioral sciences in Washington.
NCJA President Andrew LeFevre, executive director of the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission, said, “We are proud to host this repository of experts and to make them available to policymakers, reporters, and the public promoting data informed and data driven criminal justice policy.”
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