OJJDP FY 09 Recovery Act Internet Crimes Against Children Research Grants

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The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) provides national leadership, coordination, and resources to prevent and respond to juvenile delinquency and juvenile victimization. OJJDP supports States and communities in their efforts to develop and implement effective and coordinated prevention and intervention programs and to improve the juvenile and criminal justice systems so that they protect public safety, hold offenders accountable, and provide treatment and rehabilitative services tailored to the needs of juveniles and their families. Through this program, OJJDP seeks to encourage innovative and independent research and data collection to further our understanding of the scope and prevalence of technology and internet-facilitated crimes against children and to enhance the administration of justice through improved investigation of crime. . This program furthers the purpose of the Recovery Act by helping state and local law enforcement agencies budget investigation and prosecution dollars efficiently and conserve funds by investing strategically in initiatives and programs that have a demonstrated effect on management of child exploitation units, preventing crime, and holding offenders accountable. OJJDP is particularly interested in topics such as: (1) Scope and Characteristics of Internet and Technology Facilitated Crime Against Children and Juveniles: OJJDP seeks an assessment of trends, challenges, and opportunities, including new technologies that will impact federal, State, local, and tribal efforts to combat child exploitation. Proposals should build on the extant data, for example, studies by the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire; (2) Characteristics of Perpetrators of Internet and Technology Facilitated Crime Against Children and Juveniles: OJJDP seeks studies to validate existing research related to the link between possession or trafficking of child pornography and actual abuse of a child and studies related to establishing a link between the types of files being viewed or shared and the type of illegal activity; (3) Forensic Analyses: OJJDP is seeking research to develop and test new tools and techniques to improve the efficiency of forensic analyses in internet crime cases, for example, those cases using cell phones and PDAs. Proposed projects should identify how the study will be able to link the subject tool or strategy to improved forensic analysis results [e.g. by decreasing the amount of time needed for forensic analyses; by capturing on scene forensics in new or innovative ways; or decreasing backlogs of forensic analyses; (4) Investigation of Internet Crimes: OJJDP is seeking research to expand our knowledge about how technology is used in crimes against children [e.g. cell phones, file encryption, wireless networks, and peer to peer environments] and investigative strategies and techniques that address these issues; (5) Prosecution Strategies: OJJDP is seeking data collection and evaluation of successful prosecution strategies in internet and technology-facilitated crimes against children. OJJDP is also interested in legal analyses of how cases involving juveniles manufacturing or distributing sexually explicit images of themselves or their peers are handled across the U.S.; and (6) Prevention Strategies: OJJDP is seeking research on the scope and prevalence of children and youth creating and distributing explicit images of themselves and/ or their peers, with the goal of forming strategies to prevent this kind of behavior.

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