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 MO SAC was established and operates under authority of the Missouri Department of Public Safety (DPS). The SAC is placed within the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) in the Research and Development Division (RDD). The MO SAC is conducting one core capacity project with the research and analysis of domestic violence (using GIS mapping) and one special emphasis project which is a continuation from the 2015 SJS award, to continue with the conducting of a crime victimization survey.
Domestic Violence Research: The SAC will partner with Missouri State University to develop a study that uses GIS information and data derived from MSHPs criminal history database in an effort to determine factors characteristic of domestic violence offenses and offenders. In addition to the study, the SAC will present web based GIS findings for the benefit of the state, public, and other criminal justice agencies. The research project using MSHPs increased technological capacity will examine how contextual, neighborhood level variables and individual level variables influence aggregated, domestic violence-related variables across Missouri census tracts from 1990 to 2015. The analysis will examine domestic violence offender recidivism (rearrested for any crime), specialization (rearrested for only DV), and escalation (rearrested for a more serious DV charge).
Crime Victimization Survey: The survey instrument was developed with 2015 SJS funds and was delivered to the field in May 2016. The results of the survey will document prevalence rates for crime victimization across crime categories as well as for identity theft. Follow-up questions will gather details on the most recent victimization in each crime category, including characteristics of the perpetrator and the use of victim services. The survey includes questions that address the effectiveness, conduct and bias of, and experience with law enforcement. The survey also includes items on perceived neighborhood safety and fear of crime. The sample includes 2,000 households (100 for metro and non-metro households). The data is being collected by the Wyoming Statistical Analysis Center via a phone survey using both cell phones and landlines. (CA/NCF)
Note: This project contains a research and/or development component, as defined in applicable law.
