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July 2017
A vibrant research center does a variety of things: Center staff acquire research funding, work collaboratively on studies, engage in professional development to continuously improve their own skills, and participate in the life of the larger organization that the Center sits within. Another important part of a vibrant research center is engaging in different mechanisms to disseminate its work.
The Justice & Prevention Research Center (JPRC) engages in these mechanisms to reach policymakers, practitioners, researchers, journalists and students with its work. In this monthly update, we highlight some of those mechanisms. For example, this very newsletter now goes out to over 2,000 individuals around the world. JPRC staff also present the work of the Center at many different venues, and in this update, we highlight presentations given or scheduled with the Oregon Youth Authority, the American Society of Criminology, and the New York Council of School Superintendents. We also publish many reports, articles, book chapters and other types of publications, and close out the newsletter with three examples from our archives.
NEWS AND EVENTS
The increase in JPRC newsletter subscribers!
 The JPRC prides itself on maintaining transparent and objective dissemination of its research, news, and events through this monthly newsletter and we are thrilled that the JPRC newsletter has now topped 2,200 subscribers. The growth in our subscriber base has been exciting and marks a 700% increase during its four years in existence.
JPRC researchers to present on violence prevention, juvenile justice, and restorative justice at the American Criminology Society’s Annual Meeting
 Researchers from the JPRC will present a series of papers across three panels at the American Society of Criminology annual conference in Philadelphia.
The first panel presents the results of three recently funded studies for the JPRC. These studies include a project examining community-based violence prevention initiatives, a review of research on juvenile sex offender registration, and a case study of four different states implementing the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI).
The JPRC will also participate in several presentations in a second panel organized by the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) on the juvenile drug treatment court guidelines project highlighted in our December 2016 newsletter. Specifically, the panel includes presentations that focus on how evidence was synthesized and used to formulate the draft guidelines for juvenile drug treatment courts.
On the final panel, WestEd researchers will present a paper on the empirical base for restorative justice in schools, summarizing results from a project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The ASC annual meeting will be held in Philadelphia from November 15-18, 2017. You can view the full schedule here.
Presentation to the New York State Council of School Superintendents Cabinet officials
 The JPRC and Learning Innovations (LI) staff will be presenting on restorative justice to a gathering of district cabinet officials at the New York State Council of School Superintendents conference. JPRC director, Anthony Petrosino, will present an overview of the research. Susan Villani of LI (as part of her work for the Center for Educational Equity at the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium) will present on the processes used to develop a toolkit to assist schools and districts in adopting restorative practices. The presentation will be held in Saratoga Springs, New York on Sunday, September 24th.
Presentation to the Oregon Youth Authority Parole Officers
 WestEd’s JPRC and Health and Human Development Programs are conducting a rigorous study of a teen pregnancy prevention application with juvenile offenders in Oregon. You can learn more about the study here. Jonathan Nakamoto of the Health and Human Development Program recently presented to parole officers employed by the Oregon Youth Authority (OYA). The goal of the presentation was to describe WestEd's study of Healthy U to the parole officers in the audience who will assist with the collection of the study's post-intervention surveys when the participating juvenile offenders are out in the community following their release from OYA facilities. The presentation took place at the Oregon Public Safety Academy in Salem, Oregon.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Violence Prevention: Moving from Evidence to Implementation
 The magnitude of the violence problem underscores the importance of implementing effective programs. However, even when the evidence identifies a clearly effective program, there are challenges to implementation. Anthony Petrosino, JPRC Director, co-authored this discussion paper published by the National Academies Institute of Medicine in 2013 that identifies progress in the growth and accessibility of the evidence base for violence prevention and highlights several challenges in implementing evidence-based interventions. The full paper is available here.
Soft money and hard research: Working for a contract firm
 A 2014 edition of the The Criminologist publication included an article from WestEd researchers (JPRC teammates Anthony Petrosino, Sarah Guckenburg, and Trevor Fronius) that highlights the day-to-day work of a contract researcher as compared to that of faculty at research-based universities.
The article is intended for graduate students and professionals considering the benefits and challenges to working in the contract research field. The article is available here.
Meta-analyses, Systematic Reviews, and Evaluation Syntheses
 Two WestEd researchers (JPRC Director, Anthony Petrosino, and Claire Morgan) and Robert Boruch of the University of Pennsylvania co-authored a chapter in the Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation on meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and evaluation syntheses. There is an increasing demand to better understand and document the breadth and rigor of evidence across many disciplines, including criminology and prevention. The chapter identifies and describes a variety of scientifically grounded approaches to searching literatures, assembling studies for review, and analyzing, interpreting, and reporting the results. A link to the Handbook, published by Wiley Press in 2015, is available here.
About Us
WestEd Justice & Prevention Research Center is a new agency initiative that collaborates with partners in funding, implementing, and evaluating programs that promote positive youth development, physical health and well-being, and prevention of risk behaviors, including violence. Keep current on the latest Justice & Prevention Research Center reports, research studies, projects, events, and news through this monthly update, the JPRC website or by sending an email to the JPRC or its' Director, Anthony Petrosino, at apetros@wested.org.
WestEd is a nationally recognized not-for-profit research and services firm. The agency’s mission is to promote excellence, achieve equity, and improve social and learning outcomes for children, youth, and adults. WestEd has a long history of effective collaboration with local community, justice, and education agencies in implementing, and evaluating successful programs that promote positive youth development, physical health and well-being, and prevention of risk behaviors including violence.
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