The multifaceted construct of school violence includes a wide variety of acts, such as physical assault and battery, physical aggression, non-contact aggression (e.g., throwing things), broadly defined externalizing behavior, bullying, fighting, robbery, unwanted sexual contact, weapon possession, and verbal threats. Although school violence is on the decline, it remains a significant concern for researchers, policymakers, and the general public. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) commissioned this report, which summarizes the existing evidence on the causes and consequences of school violence, how school violence is conceptualized, and recommendations for future research. The report takes a comprehensive look at the state of the research on school violence and includes additional discussions about research on serious violence and studies that were funded by NIJ’s Comprehensive School Safety Initiative. The report is based on an empirical review of 341 mean effect sizes from 55 meta-analyses and a supplemental review of the methods and findings of 362 recent research studies. Based on the research reviewed, the report identifies four avenues for future research: (1) differentiating between forms of serious and non-serious violence at school; (2) identifying the causal processes that link various predictors and consequences to school violence and victimization; (3) identifying the peer and situational contexts that set the stage for victimization and violence at school; and (4) relying on more rigorous methodologies to generate firmer conclusions about the sources and consequences of school violence.

Court-related fines and fees are widely levied on criminal defendants who are frequently poor and have little capacity to pay. Such financial obligations may produce a criminalization of poverty, where later court involvement results not from crime but from an inability to meet the financial burdens of the legal process. The authors test this hypothesis using a randomized controlled trial of court-related fee relief for misdemeanor defendants in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. The authors find that relief from fees does not affect new criminal charges, convictions, or jail bookings after 12 months. However, control respondents were subject to debt collection efforts at significantly higher rates that involved new warrants, additional court debt, tax refund garnishment, and referral to a private debt collector. Despite significant efforts at debt collection among those in the control group, payments to the court totaled less than 5% of outstanding debt. The evidence indicates that court debt charged to indigent defendants neither caused nor deterred new crime, and the government obtained little financial benefit. Yet, fines and fees contributed to a criminalization of low-income defendants, placing them at risk of ongoing court involvement through new warrants and debt collection.

Most incarcerations for people living with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) occur in jails as opposed to prisons, yet studies of HIV care during jail incarceration are limited. As part of a larger study to explore the ethical considerations in extending public health HIV surveillance to jail settings, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with twenty-three people living with HIV with more than 300 distinct jail incarcerations post HIV diagnosis in 21 unique North Carolina jails. Interviews included questions about HIV disclosure in jail, the type of HIV care received in jail, and overall experiences with HIV care in jail. The authors report on participants’ experiences and perspectives in four domains: access to HIV care in jail; impact of jail incarceration on continuity of HIV care; privacy and stigma; and satisfaction with HIV care in jail. Although most participants received HIV medications and saw providers while in jail, almost half reported that their greatest challenge in regard to HIV care was obtaining their HIV medications in the face of limited jail resources or policies that made access to medications difficult. Findings from this study suggest that jail leadership should review internal policies regarding HIV medications to ensure that people living with HIV can receive them quickly upon entry into jail. Findings also suggest that more external resources are needed, for example from state and local health departments, so that jails can provide timely HIV medications for people living with HIV incarcerated in their facilities.

The authors estimate the effects of gifted children programs (GCP) in high schools in Israel. They selected a comparison group of equally gifted students from other cities where GCP was not offered at the time. Based on administrative data, they follow 22 cohorts and measure treatment effects on outcomes, ranging from high school to the labor market in their 30s and 40s. They find tiny impact on academic achievements in high school, in contrast to the abundance of educational resources enjoyed by GCP participants. In the longer run, the authors find meaningful effects of GCP on higher education attainment. Program participants study more math, computer, and physical sciences but engage less in engineering programs. The net effect on STEM degrees is, therefore, zero. However, a much higher share of GCP participants graduated with two STEM majors. This evidence suggests that GCP enhances the impact of multipotentiality, which characterizes many gifted adolescents. The effect on getting a Ph.D. is positive, too. Lastly, they find no effect of GCP on employment and earnings. Nor do the authors find that GCP participants work more than other equally talented children in the knowledge economy. These results are very similar for females and males gifted children.

Considering education as an ecosystem (rather than a single, independent system or agency) recognizes the interconnections between environments within and outside of schools that impact student well-being. When included as a key part of the wellness ecosystem, the arts can provide opportunities for students to express themselves and their emotions, build relationships with peers and mentors, and process and heal from trauma. This resource provides an overview of policies and actions at the local, state and federal levels that impact the health of this ecosystem and collaboration across agencies. These policies and actions include (1) determining priorities at the intersection of education, healing and wellness; (2) providing workforce training to increase awareness and detect mental health issues, and to connect young people to services; and (3) offering classroom- and community-based arts experiences for students.. Designed as a conversation starter, this resource and the checklist 10 Questions for Reflection and Action can help further explore this vision for an educational community.

Women and ethnic minoritized individuals are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains in postsecondary education and in the workforce. The aim of this study was to examine whether adolescents' perceptions of inclusivity, belonging, and discrimination in high school STEM classes are related to their STEM class engagement in and outside of school. In this study, ethnically diverse 9th–12th grade high school students from low-income public schools in the United States completed measures of classroom inclusivity, perceived teacher discrimination, belonging, STEM classroom engagement, and STEM activism orientation. Path analyses revealed direct effects of inclusion and perceived discrimination on STEM activism orientation. Further, findings demonstrated direct effects of inclusion on belonging and on belonging and both STEM classroom engagement and STEM activism orientation. Finally, findings revealed a significant indirect effect of inclusion on STEM classroom engagement through belonging.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides benefits to low-income, eligible households on an electronic benefit transfer card; benefits can then be exchanged for foods at authorized retailers. SNAP reaches a large share of low-income households, particularly so during the COVID-19 pandemic. In federal Fiscal Year 2021, a monthly average of 41.5 million persons in 21.6 million households participated in SNAP. Broad-based categorical eligibility is a policy that makes most households with incomes below a certain threshold categorically eligible for SNAP. Typically, households are made categorically eligible through receiving or being authorized to receive a minimal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or state Maintenance of Effort (MOE) funded benefit or service, such as being given a brochure or being referred to a social services “1-800 telephone number. Forty-four states (including Florida) use the broad-based categorical eligibility and of those 44 states, 1) 42 make all family types eligible (New Hampshire and New York limit broad-based categorical eligibility to certain household types); 2) 39 currently have no asset test. Note, though, currently in 16 of these jurisdictions, households with an elderly and disabled member with incomes in excess of 200% of the federal poverty guidelines have to meet the regular SNAP asset tests of $3,500 for households of that type; 3) 5 states (Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, and Texas) apply an asset test for all households); and 36 have a gross income limit above 130% of the federal poverty guidelines.

The U.S. economy started 2022 with a strong jobs report. Employers added 467,000 jobs. The unemployment rate among prime-age workers (those ages 24 to 54) remained at 3.5% for both male and female workers. However, among youth (ages 16-24) the unemployment rate increased by 0.7 percentage points to 9.4% for males (ages 16-24), whereas it decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 7.2% for females. Looking at the yearlong trends in unemployment rates by age and gender, rates trended downward for all groups. However, rates among youth fluctuated considerably compared to those for workers ages 24 to 54. This reflected the seasonality of youth’s participation in the labor force, with many youth searching for shorter-term employment, particularly in the summer.

Studies have established that the expanded federal Child Tax Credit (CTC), which provided monthly cash payments to most U.S. families with children from July to December 2021, substantially reduced poverty and food hardship. Other studies posit, however, that the CTC payments may generate negative employment effects that could offset its potential poverty-reduction effects. Scholars have simulated employment scenarios assuming various labor supply elasticities, but less work has empirically assessed how the monthly payments affected employment outcomes using real-world data. To evaluate employment effects, the authors apply a series of difference-in-differences analyses using data from the monthly Current Population Survey and the Census Pulse, both from April through December 2021. Across both samples and several model specifications, they find very small, inconsistently signed, and statistically insignificant impacts of the CTC both on employment in the prior week and on active participation in the labor force among adults living in households with children. Further, labor supply responses to the policy change do not differ for households for whom the CTC’s expansion eliminated a previous work incentive. Thus, these analyses of real-world data suggest that the expanded CTC did not have negative short-term employment effects that offset its documented reductions in poverty and hardship.

In 2020, suicide was the 12th leading cause of death for all ages in the United States, changing from the 10th leading cause in 2019 due to the emergence of COVID-19 deaths and increases in deaths from chronic liver disease and cirrhosis. As the second leading cause of death in people aged 10–34 and the fifth leading cause in people aged 35–54, suicide is a major contributor to premature mortality. Suicide rates increased from 2000 to 2018, but recent data have shown declines between 2018 and 2020. This report presents final suicide rates from 2000 through 2020, in total and by sex, age group, and means of suicide, using mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System. This report updates a provisional 2020 report and a previous report with final data through 2019. Key findings include that after increasing from 2000 through 2018, the age-adjusted suicide rate declined from 2018 (14.2 per 100,000) to 2020 (13.5 per 100,000). Suicide rates for females in all age groups over age 25 showed recent declines, while rates for those aged 10–14 and 15–24 have generally increased. Between 2018 and 2020, suicide rates decreased in males aged 45–64 and 65–74. For females in 2020, the rate of firearm-related suicide (1.8) was higher than rates of suicide by poisoning (1.5) and suffocation (1.7). For males in 2020, the leading means of suicide was firearm (12.5), at a rate twice that of suffocation (6.1), the second leading means.

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN ) populations have experienced long-standing problems accessing health care services and worse health outcomes than the general U.S. population, such as a life expectancy that is 5.5 years shorter than the U.S. average, according to the Indian Health Service. To provide tribes with public health support, Congress required the establishment of tribal epidemiology centers and, in 2010, authorized their access to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) data. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to understand tribal epidemiology centers' access to epidemiological data to help AI/AN communities prevent and control diseases. Among the 12 tribal epidemiology centers access to epidemiological data varied. Federal law authorizes tribal epidemiology centers' access to data from HHS, including data from HHS's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Indian Health Service, for a variety of public health purposes. However, according to tribal epidemiology center officials, access to non-public HHS data, such as CDC data on positive COVID-19 tests or Indian Health Service data on patient diagnosis codes, varied among tribal epidemiology centers. Tribal epidemiology center officials also described challenges accessing some CDC and Indian Health Service data, such as the inability to access certain CDC data on infectious diseases and other conditions. Tribal epidemiology centers used available epidemiological data to monitor the spread of COVID-19 and to conduct other analyses that support public health decision-making in AI/AN communities. However, tribal epidemiology center officials told the authors that their access to data influences the analyses they are able to conduct, and that a lack of access can limit their ability to provide AI/AN communities with meaningful information needed for decision-making.

Parks and green spaces offer significant health benefits for users. They play a critical role in supporting mental and physical health and provide essential space for social gatherings and community events. Evidence on health benefits highlight the importance of contextualizing who has access to parks and green spaces and whether that access is equitable. This report provides a comprehensive summary of the research on the health equity benefits of parks to support local leaders, park professionals, advocates, and others to advance the field of park and green space health equity with more strategic investments. For example, the literature is strongest in connecting the quantifiable value of parks for physical activity and physical health impacts and the value of green space for mental health well-being and environmental impacts. The report explores four dimensions of health—physical, mental, social, and environmental—to demonstrate the range of health benefits from parks and green spaces, and where possible, the economic impacts of these contributions.