Office of Justice Programs Weekly News Brief

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- OJP Leader Discusses Vision 21 – Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary Lou Leary recently delivered remarks at the National Center for Victims of Crime 2012 Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA.  She previewed the forthcoming report, Vision 21: Transforming Victim Services, highlighting enduring and emerging issues in the victim services field and identifying steps toward building the field's capacity.  She also announced grant awards to improve sexual assault services in underserved areas and on military installations. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/newsroom/speeches/2012/12_0919mlleary.pdf

BJS Releases Special Report on Violent Crime among Households with Children – Nearly 2.8 million children or 3.9 percent of all children in U.S. households lived in a household in which at least one member age 12 or older experienced nonfatal violent crime in 2010, according to a recently released report from the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.  The special report, Prevalence of Violent Crime among Households with Children, 1993–2010, found that over a 10-year period (2001–2010), the number of children living in a household that experienced violence fell about 37 percent or six million fewer children than in 1993, one of the nation's peak crime years. WWW.BJS.Gov.

DOJ Announces Body Armor Challenge –The DOJ's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) recently funded a research challenge to help ensure body armor meets certain minimum performance requirements to protect officers. Through the Body Armor Challenge, NIJ is asking innovators to find ways to determine whether an officer's individual body armor maintains its protective qualities at all points during its service life. The goal of this Challenge is to empower law enforcement officers who depend on this equipment to make decisions about purchasing and discarding body armor based on scientific evidence regarding its future ballistic performance.  Submission dates are now through December 14.  Winners will be announced on March 15, 2013.  Complete application instructions and rules are available on the NIJ Challenge web site at http://www.nij.gov/funding/2012/body-armor-challenge.htm

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SOURCE Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs