ISAC has been awarded a research grant from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to study the prevalence and effectiveness of school resource officers (SROs) in Idaho, as well as two Douglas Yearwood National Publication Awards from the Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA; now the Justice Information Resource Network).

***Study of School Resource Officers***

The grant will fund a 1-year ISAC research project that will be carried out in partnership with a state-level working group comprised of the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections, the Idaho State Department of Education, and the Idaho Office of Drug Policy. ISAC plans to collect and analyze data on schools with and without access to an SRO to determine SRO impacts on school safety, juvenile offenses and disciplinary actions, and the role of SROs on campus. This project will provide stakeholders with an in-depth look at the prevalence and effect of SROs around Idaho, and will attempt to discern best practices for leveraging SROs to enhance school security and decrease juvenile crime and delinquency while increasing academic performance. The expected publication date of the final report is fall 2024.

The grant was awarded under BJS's State Justice Statistics (SJS) program, a competitive federal research grant aimed at enhancing states' capacity to develop and carry out innovative and timely justice system research projects. Only state Statistical Analysis Centers are eligible for funding under the SJS program, positioning ISAC as the only entity in Idaho eligible for this funding. 2023 marks the seventh straight year ISAC has earned an SJS award; ISAC has received SJS awards 23 of the last 24 years. Historically, the SJS program funds between 30 and 40 research proposals per year.

***Douglas Yearwood National Publication Awards***

ISAC has been awarded two 2023 Douglas Yearwood National Publication Awards from the Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA; now the Justice Information Resource Network). JRSA awards four Yearwood Awards annually in recognition of outstanding communication of research by Statistical Analysis Centers (SACs). The awards are broken into two divisions based on SAC staff size (small SACs have 1-4 employees; large SACs have 5 or more employees), and two awards are made in each division (one for statistical/management reports, and one for policy/research reports).

ISAC swept the Small SAC division. Crime Victimization in Idaho: An Overview of Available Data won for Best Statistical/Management Report by a Small SAC, while Offending Patterns Among Domestic Violence Offenders in Idaho won for Best Research/Policy Report by a Small SAC. As part of the award ceremony, ISAC made short presentations on each of these reports to a national audience at the 2023 Symposium on Justice Information Technology, Policy, Research, and Practice hosted by SEARCH, JRSA, and the National Criminal Justice Association held during the last week of July 2023 in Long Beach, CA.

The awards are the fifth and sixth Yearwood Awards ISAC has won since the award was created in 1986, and the first time that ISAC has swept the Small SAC division. The award winning reports can be found in the ISAC Publication Library (https://isp.idaho.gov/pgr/sac/library/).

The Idaho Statistical Analysis Center (ISAC) is located within the Planning, Grants & Research Department of the Idaho State Police. The mission of ISAC is to disseminate research, data and statistics related to crime, illegal drugs, victim services, and the administration of justice in Idaho. To learn more about ISAC, or to access other data dashboards and publications, visit our website at https://isp.idaho.gov/pgr/sac/.