This report provides information about the Victims of Child Abuse Act (VOCA) administered by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The office administers funds to support children's advocacy centers (CACs) as authorized by VOCA. These funds support programs as well as training and technical assistance that provide all children and families access to strong multidisciplinary teams of highly qualified professionals who respond to and help heal victims of child abuse. The overarching goal of these VOCA-funded programs is to improve the community response to child abuse through strategic leadership, collaboration, and capacity building. The VOCA-funded grantee organizations provide specialized training and technical assistance, elevate the expertise of child abuse professionals, and develop and improve the functioning of multidisciplinary teams, CACs, and state CAC chapters to strengthen the system's response to child abuse and neglect as well as provide direct funding to local CACs through subgrant funding. Currently, the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s VOCA program portfolio comprises five interconnected initiatives. These initiatives provide focused support at the local, regional, and national levels to maximize the impact of services for child victims of abuse and ensure access to services and training and technical assistance for communities and involved professionals.

While it is known that hate crimes are underreported throughout the United States, there is not a clear understanding of exactly why reporting rates are low, to what extent, and what might be done to improve them. An even more elementary question, with no single answer, is: What constitutes a hate crime? Different state statutes and law enforcement agencies have different answers to that question, which further complicates the task of identifying hate crimes and harmonizing hate crime data collection and statistics. A recent series of evidence-based research initiatives supported by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is helping to narrow this critical knowledge gap and illuminate a better path forward. The study findings fill in vital details on causes of hate crime underreporting in various communities, including hate crime victims' reluctance to engage with law enforcement; victims' and law enforcement agencies' inability to recognize certain victimizations as hate crimes; a very large deficit of hate crime reporting by law enforcement agencies of all sizes; and variations in hate crime definitions across jurisdictions. Knowledge gained from the NIJ-supported research on bias victimization and hate crime can strengthen hate crime recognition, reporting, and response.

When a person is charged and convicted of a criminal offense in Minnesota, a number of consequences flow from that conviction. The person may experience arrest and booking into the county jail. They may have to post bond or bail to gain pretrial release from jail while the case is pending. And if convicted, they may be sentenced to a period of incarceration in prison or jail or they may be ordered to serve a period of time on probation, during which they will have numerous court-ordered conditions to comply with. Each of these touchpoints with the criminal justice system may incur additional challenges for the person, such as potential loss of employment, and impacts on family members who may have to post bail or oversee care for their children. One area that is less visible is the financial side of the experience. There are three different types of financial obligations a person may be required to pay following conviction for a criminal offense: fines, restitution, and fees. Fines serve as a form of punishment for the offense committed, while also generating revenue for the system. Restitution, on the other hand, is a financial obligation that aims to compensate the victim for any losses sustained as a result of the crime. Fees are different, in that their primary function is revenue generation. Fees are financial obligations that are used to fund specific aspects of the criminal legal system, such as public defender representation, or to provide funding for the state, county, or city’s general budget. This report provides a broad overview of the fines, restitution, and fees that are imposed in Minnesota upon conviction for a criminal offense. The goal is to document and explain the financial obligations that are well-defined, and for which information is readily accessible, as well those that are less defined or left to local discretion, and for which information is harder to access. Recommendations from this study include 1) require a person’s ability to pay to be assessed before the fine, restitution, or fee is imposed; and 2) establish or adjust the fine, restitution, or fee amounts based on the individual's ability to pay.

Research has shown that the traditional system of multi-semester prerequisite developmental education, providing a sequence of one to three semester-length courses, depending on perceived need, traditionally assessed through standardized testing, hinders academic progress for large numbers of students and has disproportionately negative effects on students of color and students from low-income backgrounds. In response, there has been an increased national interest in implementing corequisite remediation in community colleges and four-year institutions, with the goal of better helping incoming students complete gateway college-level math and English courses. Corequisite remediation involves placing students who have been designated as underprepared directly into college-level courses with corequisite supports—such as in-class tutoring, online learning labs, or a supplemental class— rather than making them take non-credit-bearing developmental courses first. In 2020, through the Corequisite Research Design Collaborative (CRDC), the Charles A. Dana Center designed an initiative for implementing equity-minded, holistic corequisite course models to scale at three Minnesota colleges and one Texas college. This research brief highlights findings from interviews, focus groups, and the research team’s observations on the design and implementation of corequisite courses at the four CRDC colleges, as well as findings from a survey administered to students who were enrolled in these courses during the fall 2021 semester or spring 2022 semester. The authors found that corequisite support courses helped students understand course content and increased their coursework engagement relative to their engagement in their corequisite college-level courses. Some corequisite courses successfully integrated holistic support services and culturally relevant instruction. Instructors and student services staff described implementation challenges related to scheduling corequisite courses and communicating about the courses with students. Recommendations include working with math and English departments to determine whether there is a need or demand to incorporate holistic supports into corequisite courses; determining the appropriate corequisite support structure that suits students’ and instructors’ needs and availability; and monitoring outreach and recruitment for corequisite supports to increase program enrollment into these courses.

Despite the contributions of their work to the learning and development of young children, child care and early education (CCEE) educators are among the lowest-paid workers in the United States. These educators, who are predominantly female and are disproportionately women of color, earn less than other employees in a range of similar roles requiring comparable skills and education. In 2022, the median hourly wage for CCEE educators was $13.71, 38% below the $22.26 median hourly wage of other similar occupations. Significant portions of CCEE educators live in poverty and rely on public assistance benefits. In 2020, CCEE educators were almost eight times as likely to live in poverty compared to K-8 educators. Furthermore, wages for CCEE educators working with infants and toddlers tend to be lower compared to those working with preschool-age children. The Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund (PEF) was created to achieve compensation equity with Washington, D.C. public schools teachers. This initiative, launched in the fall of 2022, delivered initial lump sum payments ranging from $10,000 to $14,000 to approximately 3,000 CCEE educators serving children aged birth to three. This policy research brief examines the immediate impacts of these payments on CCEE employment levels in D.C. The study finds a significant correlation between immediate increases in CCEE employment levels in D.C. and the launch of the PEF. By the fourth quarter of 2022, the initial PEF payments associated with a statistically significant increase of 101 educators, or 3.2%, over the estimated employment level in the absence of the PEF.

This report provides estimates of two measures of poverty: the official poverty measure and the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). The official poverty measure, produced since the 1960s, defines poverty by comparing pretax money income to a national poverty threshold adjusted by family composition. The official poverty measure is used to determine eligibility for several government programs and has been used as a benchmark of economic well-being since its adoption. The SPM extends the official poverty measure by accounting for several government programs that are designed to assist low-income families but are not included in official poverty measure calculations. The SPM also accounts for geographic variation in housing expenses when calculating the poverty thresholds and includes federal and state taxes, work expenses, and medical expenses. Nationally, the official poverty rate in 2022 was 11.5%, with 37.9 million people in poverty. Neither the rate nor the number in poverty was significantly different from 2021. In Florida, the official poverty rate was 13.1%. Nationally, the official poverty rate for Black individuals decreased between 2021 and 2022; the 2022 rate was the lowest on record. Official poverty rates increased between 2021 and 2022 for the White and non-Hispanic White populations. Poverty rates were not statistically different for the Asian, American Indian and Alaska Native, two or more races, or Hispanic (any race) populations. Nationally, the SPM rate in 2022 was 12.4%, an increase of 4.6 percentage points from 2021. This is the first increase in the overall SPM poverty rate since 2010. All the demographic groups discussed in this report experienced increases in their SPM rates between 2021 and 2022. The SPM rate in 2022 in Florida was 112.7%. Nationally, the SPM child poverty rate more than doubled, from 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022. The rates also increased for 18- to 64-year-olds and people 65 years and older. Social Security continued to be the most important antipoverty program in 2022, moving 28.9 million people out of SPM poverty. Meanwhile, refundable tax credits moved 6.4 million people out of SPM poverty, down from 9.6 million people in 2021.

Asleep/fatigued driving has proven to be a serious and persistent highway-safety problem. This study investigates aspects of this problem by studying the temporal changes in driver-injury severities in single-vehicle crashes that involve asleep/fatigued driving. To do this, predictive analytics were used to estimate comparisons in injury-severities in asleep/fatigued crashes in Florida in 2014 and 2019. The estimated models were based on available police-reported crash data that include a wide variety of factors related to the spatial, temporal, and weather characteristics as well as vehicle characteristics, traffic information, harmful events, roadway attributes, and driver characteristics. The model estimates show that there were many statistically significant factors determining driver-injury severities resulting from asleep/fatigued driving, and that the effect of these factors on driver-injury severities has changed significantly over time, with many explanatory variables producing temporally shifting marginal effects. While asleep/fatigued driving crashes remain a serious safety concern, the empirical findings indicate (using model prediction simulations) that the resulting injury severities in crashes involving asleep/fatigued driving have declined between 2014 and 2019, likely reflecting the effectiveness of safety campaigns and ongoing improvements in vehicle safety technologies and highway safety features.

Researchers considered a future in which corporate cryptocurrency (crypto), a type of fungible digital token sponsored by multinational corporations, is in widespread use in a manner that is widely seen to serve the public interest. Researchers convened internal experts and external stakeholders to envision such a future and identify strategic approaches to evolving technological and economic trends underpinning this future. This analysis pays special attention to the balance of global benefits and risks that corporate crypto presents. Peer-to-peer digital currencies are designed to make payments easier, faster, and less expensive. Some multinational corporations are experimenting with peer-to-peer digital currencies to increase payment efficiencies and support innovation. Examples of this corporate crypto exist today but are few in number; limited in use; and remain in developmental, experimental, or pilot stages. Corporate crypto is functionally similar to other digital currencies that enable peer-to-peer transactions (e.g., Bitcoin, retail Central Bank Digital Currencies). Unlike these other digital currencies, however, a corporate crypto can benefit from characteristics of its corporate sponsor, such as market share, existing customer base and business relationships, and brand equity. Corporate crypto would be disruptive—developing new markets or altering existing ones—to the degree it disintermediates existing financial service providers. The most disruptive corporate crypto would be sponsored by a non-bank private enterprise with a global footprint. As disruptive as it might ultimately become, a desirable future state involving corporate crypto relies on overcoming policy challenges that are not unique to corporate crypto (e.g., multilateral cooperation, conceptual and normative consensus, adequate information). Considering the recent failures of unregulated cryptocurrency projects, it is important to be alert to how corporate crypto can succeed where other crypto projects have failed. As multinational corporations contemplate sponsoring corporate crypto, stakeholders will need to engage in dialogue with one another to decrease uncertainty and ensure innovation serves the public interest.

The size and growth of Medicaid present challenges for both the federal government and states, which share program oversight responsibilities. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has identified gaps in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS’s) Medicaid oversight. The GAO has previously reported that CMS could use the work of state auditors, who are independent from their states’ Medicaid programs, to help address those gaps. This report describes state auditors’ Medicaid findings and the challenges they face auditing Medicaid. It also examines CMS’s use of state auditors’ findings and collaboration with auditors. From Fiscal Years 2019 through 2021, state auditors identified an average of over 300 Medicaid audit findings a year, including overpayments for services provided to beneficiaries and payments to providers not enrolled in Medicaid. The CMS monitors states’ progress toward resolving these findings. This study found nearly 60% of Medicaid single audit findings were repeated from the prior year, indicating incomplete or ineffective corrective actions. State auditors faced challenges conducting Medicaid audits. For example, auditors from four selected states (Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania) told researchers they faced resource challenges, such as a lack of training. Auditors from all selected states described challenges obtaining information from CMS or their state Medicaid agency necessary to conduct audits, such as information on program risks. The CMS and other federal agencies have recently begun to address some of these challenges. The authors present two recommendations for CMS: (1) use analysis of trends in state auditor findings to inform its oversight; and (2) strengthen its collaboration with state auditors, for example, by sharing information on those trends and the status of actions to address audit findings, and continuing to identify Compliance Supplement updates.

The Partnering for Vaccine Equity (P4VE) program launched in 2021 to address racial and ethnic disparities in adult COVID-19 and influenza vaccination by supporting community-based organizations in implementing tailored outreach strategies to advance vaccine equity and uptake in their communities. The project provided grants to 18 P4VE-funded organizations to develop, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of a promising practice in one of three areas: media-based outreach, community-based outreach, and vaccine events and partnerships. The report identified seven practices, such as holding events within community settings that are familiar to community members and developing trusted relationships within the community, for supporting outreach and access strategies. Notably, these practices were not uniquely reported by any of the three outreach areas. Instead, they were shared and consistent across most grantees in all three areas, whether they engaged in media- or community-based outreach or in implementing vaccine events and partnerships.

Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are entities that administer prescription drug insurance benefits. Their key functions include negotiating prices with drug manufacturers and pharmacies, establishing drug formularies and pharmacy networks, and processing drug claims. Pharmacy benefit managers are currently attracting considerable critical attention from policymakers. Multiple congressional committees have recently reported out legislation related to PBMs, and there will likely be efforts to reconcile these bills this fall. This analysis offers a brief overview of PBMs’ role in the prescription drug marketplace and key current debates related to PBMs. An overarching message is that while there are problems in the market for PBM services, they likely have modest effects on the overall affordability of prescription drugs. Consistent with this, while some PBM reforms currently being considered are worthwhile, achieving large reductions in prescription drug costs will require approaches that look beyond PBMs per se.