Courts
Prosecutors, judges, and court personnel are faced with increasing challenges to find approaches that will help them not only clear cases and decrease dockets but also focus more on tailoring services to lower recidivism. In addition, they face these challenges with limited resources. Throughout the country, experts find that crimes involving gun violence, mentally ill and disabled populations, and drug users require special efforts. These efforts help ensure accountability on the part of the offenders while also ensuring that offenders return to the community with the services and supervision they need to help them stop their negative behavior. Although the methods chosen to meet these needs are unique to local court personnel, OJP is committed to providing the resources, tools, and support needed to help them test their ideas.
Several OJP bureaus provide programming and research support to address court-related issues:
- The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) administers programming designed to assist prosecutors in several ways, including enhancing their ability to address gun crimes. BJA also provides assistance to adult drug courts and mental health courts across the country. Visit BJA’s Adjudication topic page.
- The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) contributes to the reduction of youth crime and violence through its support of juvenile and family drug courts. Visit OJJDP’s Courts topic page.
- The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) sponsors criminal court research and court-based program evaluation to identify tools, programs, and policies that satisfy criminal justice goals including public safety, cost-efficiency, and fair and equitable treatment of victims and defendants. Visit NIJ.gov’s Courts topic page.
Funding Opportunities
Visit the following sites to learn about court-related funding opportunities from OJP bureaus and other Federal sources:
See the OJP Open Solicitations page to learn more about opportunities and to access archived solicitations.
Programs/Initiatives
- Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA): Adjudication Programs
- Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)
- Court Statistics Project
- Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project
- Judges’ Criminal Justice/Mental Health Leadership Initiative
Also see the Courts page on OJP’s CrimeSolutions.gov for ratings of related programs.
Publications and Resources
Access related publications and resources from OJP and its bureaus by visiting:
- Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA): Adjudication
- Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS): Courts
- National Institute of Justice (NIJ): Courts
- Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP): Courts
For additional resources, visit the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) site:
- Courts
- Search the NCJRS Abstracts Database
