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NIJ Special Report

  • Third Status Report to the Attorney General on Body Armor Safety Initiative Testing and Activities

    Findings from a ballistic and mechanical properties test of 103 used Zylon-containing body armor are presented. This report contains the following sections: executive summary; supplemental results from Phase I testing; Phase II testing results; results of Phase I and II ballistic testing; applied research; compliance testing process review and modifications; summary; complete results of Phase I (Worst Case) P-BFS test; Phase I (Worst Case) ballistic limit and tensile strength test results; results of Phase II P-BFS testing; and individual armor models tested. The "results clearly show that used Zylon-containing body armor may not provide the intended level of ballistic resistance" (p. 3).

  • Practical Implications of Current Domestic Violence Research: For Law Enforcement, Prosecutors and Judges

    This report covers research related to domestic violence. Eight sections make up this document: overview; reporting and arrests; perpetrator characteristics; victim characteristics; law enforcement responses; prosecution responses; judicial responses; and intervention programs.

  • Mending Justice: Sentinel Event Reviews

    In this publication, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) explores the feasibility of mobilizing an “organizational accident,” learning-from-error approach in the criminal justice system. We introduce the notion of the “sentinel event”: a bad outcome that no one wants repeated and that signals the existence of underlying weaknesses in the system.