West Virginia State Justice Statistics Program

The State Justice Statistics (SJS) Program is designed to maintain and enhance each state's capacity to address criminal justice issues through collection and analysis of data. The SJS Program provides support to each state to coordinate and conduct statistical activities within the state, conduct research to estimate impacts of legislative and policy changes, and serve as a liaison in assisting BJS to gather data from respondent agencies within their states.

The West Virginia Statistical Analysis Center (SAC), located within the Division of Justice and Community Services, will use SJS funds to complete tasks related to the following projects: 1) work with the WV Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Advisory Board and other stakeholder agencies to improve the performance measurement data available to hospitals on medical professionals conducting the sexual assault forensic examinations and on the quality of sexual assault data to enhance the standard of care for victims and to provide the means to research the effects of data quality on arrests and prosecutions; 2) develop performance measures to evaluate the Level of Service/Case Management Inventory risk assessment tools to help with the statewide implementation of the use of risk and needs assessment tools in all stages of the justice process; 3) support a larger study on school violence currently being conducted in the state by developing scales and indices for the data based on underlying constructs and testing the reliability of the variables comprising the constructs; and 4) continuing to compile and submit to BJS data on deaths occurring in the process of arrest. CA/NCF