View Research by Author - Allison Dwyer

Publications

Collecting DNA from Juveniles examines the laws, policies, and practices related to juvenile DNA collection in the United States. States have increasingly required juveniles - mostly those adjudicated delinquent but also some arrestees - to submit DNA samples for analysis and inclusion in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), the FBI-operated national database. The report describes the issues encountered during the implementation of these laws, including the coordination challenges between the state crime labs and juvenile justice agencies, and discusses the challenges that researchers and practitioners face in assessing the effects of juvenile DNA collection on public safety outcomes.

A growing number of cities are using surveillance cameras to reduce crime, but little research exists to determine whether they’re worth the cost. With jurisdictions across the country tightening their belts, public safety resources are scarce—and policymakers need to know which potential investments are likely to bear fruit. This research brief summarizes the Urban Institute's series documenting three cities use of public surveillance cameras and how they impacted crime in their neighborhoods.

This publication is designed to guide city administrators, law enforcement agencies, and their municipal partners in implementing and employing public surveillance systems in a manner that will have the greatest impact on public safety. It details the various aspects of a system that are integral in yielding a cost-beneficial impact on crime, including budgetary considerations, camera types and locations, how best to monitor cameras, and the role that video footage plays in investigations and prosecutions. It also highlights the most prominent lessons learned in an effort to guide city administrators and jurisdictions that are currently investing in cameras for public safety purposes, as well as to inform those that are contemplating doing so.

This report summarizes the results of an evaluation of public surveillance systems in Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., examining how systems in each of these jurisdictions were selected and implemented and assessing the degree to which they achieved their intended crime prevention impact. The study also explored whether surveillance cameras displaced crime or yielded a diffusion of benefits to areas just beyond the cameras reach, and included a cost-benefit analysis component in two of the three study sites. Findings indicate that in places where cameras were sufficiently concentrated and routinely monitored by trained staff, the impact on crime was significant and cost-beneficial, with no evidence of crime displacement.

This guidebook provides instruction for local leaders aiming to improve the efficiency of their justice systems by managing and allocating scarce resources more cost-effectively and generating savings that can be reinvested in prevention-oriented strategies. It describes the steps involved in this justice reinvestment process, the challenges that may be encountered, and how those challenges can be overcome. While the intended audience is local county and city managers and their criminal justice leaders, this document is designed to be accessible to a wide array of local government stakeholders, along with criminal justice practitioners, consultants, and researchers.

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