Mass shootings have a severe impact on victims and society, and understanding this form of violence is a national criminal justice priority. Law enforcement and researchers have produced greater knowledge about these events in recent years, but the field is limited by the absence of a uniform definition of mass shootings and a lack of consistent data sources on attempted and completed mass shooting incidents. This article summarizes the findings of the systematic review of the literature on mass shootings and explains that literature’s limitations. It also reports on a series of recent National Institute of Justice (NIJ)-led meetings with leading researchers and law enforcement practitioners, discussing their points of consensus and divergence on the subject of mass shootings as well as their recommendations for moving the field forward in both research and prevention efforts.

Knowing the growing impact of financial exploitation, this report unpacks the dynamics surrounding the issue with a close eye on the all-important question of cost (that is, the cost to victims, financial institutions, and government budgets). This report defines financial exploitation, summarizes the methodologies and findings of studies that have examined its costs, and sheds light on what is known about both the victims and perpetrators. Analysis shows major costs and community impacts, such as: 1) a national average of $120,000 lost per victim; 2) an estimated $17,000 loss to financial institutions per case; 3) an estimated $36,000 in direct costs to caregivers due to a family member being exploited; 4) family members steal twice as much money as strangers; and 5) older adults with cognitive challenges are the most vulnerable to exploitation and have up to twice the amount stolen.

A changing economy and rapid advancements in technology have resulted in mismatches between employers’ needs and workers’ skills in a number of fields — and are likely to continue to generate new ones. Many people in postsecondary education and workforce development see community college career and technical education (CTE) as a way to fill shortages in the labor market while providing a pathway to economic mobility for many Americans. Career and Technical Education (CTE) provides occupational preparation and training that often culminates in shorter-term credentials such as certificates; it may or may not provide credits that can be used for college degrees. One important question about CTE programs at community colleges is: Are they equipped to provide those pathways to economic mobility equitably (that is, regardless of individuals’ races, ethnicities, genders, socioeconomic backgrounds, or geographic regions, or the intersection of these characteristics)? This report is based on a scan of notable community college CTE programs across the country to identify promising practices and common challenges. Findings include that (1) colleges may be able to promote equitable and diverse enrollment in CTE programs by adjusting their outreach and by finding creative recruitment strategies, including the use of peer recruiters and community partners; (2) targeted and individually tailored coaching, support networks, and non-tuition financial support may help students stay in and complete programs, reducing inequitable disparities in outcomes; (3) post-graduation support services, used more and more frequently in the workforce field, may help underrepresented students persist in the labor market and increase their earnings, thereby reducing wage disparities; and (4) as colleges continue to become more sensitive to equity goals, they can aim to uncover otherwise hidden inequities by analyzing outcomes according to race, ethnicity, gender, and other characteristics relevant to their local contexts.

Communications through electronic devices require knowledge in typewriting, typically with the pinyin input method in China. Pinyin is the romanization system of characters, which converts a pinyin sequence of whole characters to a list of Chinese characters sharing the same pinyin for typists to choose from. The pinyin input method is convenient and easy to learn, with almost no training. It allows users to input the pinyin of a single or multi-character word and select the appropriate one from a list of characters sharing the same pinyin. Thus, the pinyin input method requires limited visuo-orthographic analysis of written Chinese characters. Yet, the over use of the pronunciation-based pinyin input method may violate the traditional learning processes of written Chinese, which involves abundant visual orthographic analysis of characters and repeated writing. The authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine the influence of pinyin typing on reading neurodevelopment of intermediate Chinese readers (age 9–11). They found that, relative to less frequent pinyin users, more frequent pinyin users showed an overall weaker pattern of cortical activations in the left middle frontal gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus, and right fusiform gyrus in performing reading tasks. In addition, more frequent pinyin typists had relatively less gray matter volume in the left middle frontal region, a site known to be crucial for Chinese reading. This study demonstrates that Chinese children’s brain development in the information era is affected by the frequent use of the pinyin input method.

A growing body of research suggests that school management models emphasizing teacher influence in school governance have a range of benefits, including increased teacher job satisfaction, improved academic performance, and more-effective organizational learning. However, nationwide data show that principals are significantly more likely to perceive that teachers have influence in their schools than teachers. More principals than teachers feel that teachers are involved in making important school decisions. Almost all principals agree or strongly agree with the statement that teachers have a lot of informal opportunity to influence what happens at their school, a much higher rate than for teachers. In addition, almost a third of teachers feel uncomfortable voicing concerns. These perception gaps between teachers and principals signal a disconnect that may foster professional stagnation and frustration. Report findings include that 96% of principals surveyed feel that teachers are involved in making important school decisions, while only 58% of teachers do. Almost all principals (98%) feel that teachers have a lot of informal opportunity to influence what happens at school, a much higher rate than for teachers (62%). And 97% of principals thought their teachers were comfortable voicing concerns, but 31% of teachers reported that they are not comfortable voicing concerns in their schools.

In the past few weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to some big-city residents relocating to summer homes and other less dense places in the hopes of avoiding the coronavirus. While this is a temporary phenomenon in response to a crisis, recently released Census Bureau statistics reveal such relocations dovetail with a longer-term, national dispersal away from large metropolitan area populations. This is a reversal from the early 2010s, which witnessed an unusually large growth surge for many of the nation’s biggest metropolises and cities. Despite the pervasive slowdown in growth, major metro areas did exhibit a range of growth levels. Even in 2018 to 2019, growth rates ranged from a high of 2.8% for Austin, Texas to a low of -0.3% for New York City. There are significant trends to watch going forward. And despite recent demographic reversals, major metropolitan areas (home to 56% of U.S. residents) will continue to be important anchors for the nation’s population and economy in the decade ahead.

This paper measures the role of the diffusion of high-speed Internet on an individual's ability to self-isolate during a global pandemic. The authors use data that tracks 20 million mobile devices and their movements across physical locations, and whether the mobile devices leave their homes that day. They show that while income is correlated with differences in the ability to stay at home, the unequal diffusion of high-speed Internet in homes across regions drives much of this observed income effect. The authors examine compliance with state-level directives to avoid leaving your home. Devices in regions with either high-income or high-speed Internet are less likely to leave their homes after such a directive. However, the combination of having both high income and high-speed Internet appears to be the biggest driver of propensity to stay at home. These results suggest that the digital divide---or the fact that income and home Internet access are correlated---appears to explain much inequality observed in people's ability to self-isolate.

A holistic assessment of the labor market effects of minimum wage regulation requires understanding employer compliance. The authors investigate how minimum wage increases and the strength of enforcement regimes affect the prevalence of sub-minimum wage payment. Using the Current Population Survey (CPS), they find strong evidence that higher minimum wages lead to a greater prevalence of sub-minimum wage payment. They estimate that increases in measured underpayment following minimum wage increases average between 14% and 22% of realized wage gains. Furthermore, the authors provide evidence that these estimates are unlikely to be driven by measurement error in the CPS’s wage data, which are self-reported. Taken together, the authors interpret these findings as evidence that minimum wage non-compliance is an important reality in the low-wage labor market. They find some evidence that enforcement regimes mediate both baseline rates of sub-minimum wage payment and the response of sub-minimum wage payment to increases in minimum wages.

Today, the world is experiencing a pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus. COVID-19 is the third disease from a coronavirus to cause a global outbreak, after severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and the second that emerged from China. During the 17 years between the SARS and the COVID-19 outbreaks, China has quadrupled its share of the world economy, lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, and established a national health insurance system covering 95% of its 1.4 billion people. Crisis management can provide a unique angle for examining the strengths and weaknesses of a public health response system. COVID-19 has shown that the Chinese government’s investments—along with support from international global health agencies—have greatly improved China’s global health technology and capability. Additionally, the Chinese government has demonstrated its strength in mobilizing national resources to contain an outbreak. However, COVID-19 has again revealed that a tendency in conventional Chinese politics to exaggerate positive developments and minimize bad news might have both jeopardized a swift response to an emerging crisis and allowed more time for the disease to spread.

Expanding access to effective treatment for opioid use disorder is essential to staunching the opioid epidemic. This report presents findings from the second round of a telephone survey that assessed patient access to treatment services for opioid use disorder at facilities that offered pharmacotherapy (buprenorphine, methadone, or naltrexone) across New Jersey in 2019. The authors also monitored changes in access to treatment from 2018 to 2019. The report presents data on specific treatment service availability, wait times, and Medicaid coverage of treatment, including region- and county-specific data to assess the supply and demand of various treatment options throughout the state. The findings include: 1) over half, 56%, of substance use treatment facilities offered any form of opioid use disorder pharmacotherapy in 2019, up from 49% in 2018; 2) treatment facilities offering pharmacotherapy remained concentrated in northern New Jersey; and 3) patients faced a median wait time of two days across all counties and services, though wait times varied widely across both county and service type.

The Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act (H.R. 3) promises a fundamental shift in efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs in the United States. A key provision is a requirement for the government to establish prices for selected drugs that have little competition and account for substantial spending. The bill would require a drug’s price to be set between the lowest price in six high-income countries and 120% of the average price across those countries. Drug prices would fall significantly, although the effect on prices would depend on: 1) the specific choices implemented in detailed federal regulations, which could vary significantly based on a presidential administration’s policy preferences; 2) the measures instituted by other countries to constrain increases in their prices; and 3) the actions of pharmaceutical manufacturers intended to minimize the reduction in their revenues. Because constraining drug revenue would lessen expected profitability of new drugs, H.R. 3 is likely to reduce incentives for research and development. A key policy consideration involves weighing the societal trade-off between fewer new drugs coming to market versus the increased affordability of existing drugs. U.S. drug prices could be lowered either by pegging them to prices in other countries — as specified in the legislation — or by instituting a new regulatory process to set prices in the U.S. While utilizing prices in other countries is likely to achieve savings sooner, the approach may be more problematic over the long term due to efforts by other countries to avoid paying higher prices to benefit U.S. consumers. In addition, people in the U.S. may have a lower tolerance for regulation or for policies that limit access to new therapies. Initially pegging U.S. prices to those in other countries could provide a transition period for creating a U.S. regulatory regime to lower drug prices without tying our drug prices directly to those in other countries.