NIJ Director Nancy La Vigne, Ph.D.
What is Your Role at the National Institute of Justice and How Long Have you Worked There?
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is the scientific research, development and evaluation agency of the United States Department of Justice. NIJ advances justice by strengthening the scientific tools and discoveries that support the American criminal justice system. Most of our work is conducted through the issuance of research grants to colleges, universities and research institutes.
I assumed the role of NIJ director after my appointment by President Joseph R. Biden in March 2022. I am a PhD researcher by training with a background in public policy and experience leading research teams in both government and non-profit settings. Becoming director of NIJ was a homecoming for me. More than two decades ago, I was a senior social scientist at NIJ and developed and led a centre dedicated to research on the spatial analysis of crime and criminal behavior. I have dedicated my career to developing and using research evidence to improve the effectiveness and fairness of the justice system.
NIJ is mandated by the U.S. Congress to provide objective and independent knowledge and resources that inform the decision-making of justice system actors, particularly at the state and local levels. My role as director is to ensure that the institute invests in research that addresses today’s problems while working toward a safer future, then disseminating that research widely.
How Many People Work at NIJ and What is the Mix of Roles?
We currently have over 60 federal staff positions and dozens of contractors and are growing rapidly, bringing on many new staff thanks to President Biden’s strong support of NIJ’s mission. Our staff include an array of experts — social scientists, engineers, physical and forensic scientists, computer scientists, and others — who help determine the research we will seek to fund and ensure that the research we have funded remains on track. Staff scientists also engage in their own research.
Our agency’s grant managers work with NIJ funding recipients to ensure that they meet the performance goals of their grants while complying with statutory, regulatory, and agency rules and guidelines. NIJ’s administrative and budget staff track and help formulate NIJ’s annual budget and manage contracts and overall operations. And NIJ’s communications team works with science staff to disseminate new research to justice system policymakers and practitioners. Our criminal justice stakeholders use the science shared by NIJ to inform improvements to justice policies and practices.
What Drew You To Your Current Role?
I feel very fortunate to have been appointed to this position. This is a highly influential role that enables me to set priorities not just for research investments but also for how research is conducted and disseminated. It’s a tremendous opportunity to make a real difference in the world!
What Research / Teaching Areas Will Be Key for NIJ Over the Next 12 Months?
Research and presentations reflecting NIJ’s new research priorities will be a primary focus over the next year. My priorities are to: Foster rigorous research to promote safer communities and more equitable justice systems. Promote inclusive research that engages people closest to the issues, such as community members, crime survivors, criminal justice practitioners, and people who have experienced incarceration. Elevate studies that apply a racial equity lens. Ensure that evaluations of justice programs and policies include attention to implementation fidelity and unintended consequences. Encourage interdisciplinary research. Ensure that research evidence is translated into actionable information.
What’s the Most Interesting Research NIJ Has Undertaken Recently?
The findings of an NIJ-sponsored study on new forensics methods that forensic medical examiners can use to detect bruising on victims of assault who have dark skin pigmentation more accurately are extremely compelling to me. The study found that an alternative method using violet light and yellow goggles is five times more likely to detect bruising on women with dark skin color. The study raises important questions about the degree to which forensic methodologies were developed by and for white people, resulting in unequal justice system outcomes for people with darker skin tones. When a woman with dark skin pigmentation reports her experience as an assault victim and traditional methodologies do not afford nurse practitioners with the ability to detect and document the nature of her injuries, investigations are compromised, and cases are less likely to be prosecuted.
The study itself is a prime example of the value of interdisciplinary research — in this case drawing from both the forensic and social sciences. Employing a randomized controlled trial design enabled researchers to discern statistically significant differences in outcomes with no threats to internal validity. Importantly, the elegant study design enabled documentation of the impact of employing different colored lights and goggles, varying their use on women of different skin tones and tracking detection accuracy over time as bruising changed in color and size. It is also notable that the study team included people with first-hand experience as forensic nurse practitioners and thus understood that bruises manifest differently on different skin pigmentations and over time.
Finally, these research findings make a strong case that forensic examinations and documentation should be approached through a racial equity lens using the correct methodology for each individual. It is essential that these findings and pigmentation-specific methods are disseminated throughout the United States to ensure that justice is served for all victims and not just those with light skin tones.
What Would Your “Elevator Pitch” Be to Promote the Work of NIJ?
NIJ fosters research that can improve the criminal justice system and promote greater safety and equity for all. Literally thousands of NIJ research projects over our 50-plus year existence have made a meaningful difference for law enforcement officers, victims of crimes, courts and their staff, correctional facilities, and those who are incarcerated or serving community confinement. Just a few examples would be advancements in forensic DNA identification technology; enhancement of ballistic vests and materials; studies driving evidence-based eforms of law enforcement policy and practice; development of model programming to identify and support crime victims and their rights; critical school safety research; cutting edge studies on the causes, effects, and potential answers to gun violence; scientific approaches to stopping terrorism and domestic extremism; and the creation and refinement of hundreds of forensic tools and programs to fight crime.
How Does the COVID-19 Epidemic Impact the Work of Your Organization? And the Response of Your Organization in Addressing Challenges Posed by COVID-19?
Covid-19 dramatically impacted the workforce in the United States, including the federal government. When Covid-19 restrictions began in March 2020, the totality of NIJ’s workforce shifted from fully operating in an office environment to fully operating in a remote, telework situation literally overnight. NIJ had to quickly identify the best solutions to successfully transition an entire workforce from an office environment to a home environment, with the safety and health of our staff as a top priority. The challenges cosistend of both internal and external issues. Internally, NIJ immediately established new communication protocols to ensure connectivity and camaraderie among our staff; discussed flexible working hours and arrangements to accommodate the many different situations our staff faced; identified technical support and solutions to our newly mobile staff; and set expectations to help us all navigate this new environment.
Externally, NIJ ensured that we continued to meet the needs of our grantees and contractors, who were also pivoting and adjusting to a new normal. For example, researchers could no longer conduct in-person data collection, participate in onsite visits or conduct other typical research activities. NIJ helped our grantees and contractors shift to other data collection methods such interviews to keep their research and evaluation work as active as possible. I’m pleased to report that NIJ has successfully kept its research and evaluation activities on track and prevented the loss of critical data.
Apart from the Challenges, Do You Find any Opportunities Have Arisen from the COVID-19 Situation?
So many good things arose from the Covid-19 experience! Most importantly, we learned that as a collective we were able to address incredibly challenging situations. The NIJ team learned how to leverage each other’s strengths to identify creative and innovative solutions to never before encountered problems. As a result, the NIJ team has increased its confidence in tackling new issues and has become more solution driven. Covid also presents an opportunity to support research on natural experiments that resulted from the pandemic, such as its impact on crime and how the pandemic’s expedited release of people from correctional settings affected outcomes for those individuals specifically and public safety in general.
What Are the Challenging Parts of Your Job?
It is my personal philosophy that there are no real challenges, just different types of opportunities. I look forward to seizing opportunities through my role as NIJ director to promote the relevance and impact of science on all those affected by the U.S. justice system.
Source: National Institute of Justice
