|
March 29, 2024
|
|
|
The National Crime Victimization Survey is the nation’s
primary source of information on criminal victimization.
Each year, the survey obtains data from a nationally
representative sample of approximately 240,000 people in
about 150,000 households. The survey collects information
on non-fatal personal crimes (rape or sexual assault,
robbery, aggravated and simple assault, and personal
larceny) and household property crimes
(burglary/trespassing, motor vehicle theft, and other types
of household theft) both reported and not reported to the
police. Victim service providers (VSPs) are a diverse set
of public and private organizations, including nonprofit
and faith-based, governmental, health care, tribal,
for-profit, educational, and other organizations that serve
victims of crime or abuse. They offer counseling,
referrals, compensation assistance, and emergency safety
planning to victims, among other supports. Using data from
the National Crime Victimization Survey, researchers can
examine assistance from VSPs over time and by
characteristics such as victim demographics or crime type.
During the 29-year period from 1993 to 2021, the percentage
of violent victimizations reported to the police ranged
from 40% to 51%. The percentage of violent victimizations
reported to the police in 1993 (42%) was not significantly
different from the percentage in 2021 (46%). Examining more
recent years, data from the National Crime Victimization
Survey show that the percentage of violent victimizations
reported to the police did not change significantly from
2018 to 2020, although it increased from 2020 (40%) to 2021
(46%). In 2021, reporting to the police ranged from 22% to
61% based on the type of violent crime. About 22% of rape
or sexual assaults were reported to the police, while about
61% of aggravated assaults were reported to the police in
2021. Assistance received from a VSP varied by crime type
between 2017 and 2021. Rape or sexual assault
victimizations had the highest use of victim services (15%)
compared to those who experienced other types of violent
crime victim accessed services from a VSP in about 1 in 10
violent victimizations, excluding simple assault (rape or
sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault). Victim
service use varied by victim demographic during 2017-2021.
The percentage of violent victimizations involving female
victims who received assistance from a VSP (11%) was higher
compared to male victims (6%). During this period, victims
ages 12-17 received assistance from a VSP in 14% of violent
victimizations, which was higher than any other age group.
|
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice
Programs
|
|
In this report, the authors analyze data from a nationally
representative sample of persons age 60 or older who
experienced personal financial fraud to examine financial
fraud victimization committed against adults age 60 or
older. The report found that in 2017, about 1.33% (929,570)
of persons age 60 or older experienced at least one
incident of fraud. However, there were no statistically
significant differences between the percentage of persons
age 60 or older and persons age 59 or younger who
experienced fraud. This pattern held when examining by
fraud type both for persons age 60 or older and for persons
age 59 or younger. Regardless of victim age, the most
common type of fraud was consumer products and services
fraud, which about 65% of all fraud victims experienced.
Examples of this type of fraud include technology support
scams, automotive repair scams, weight-loss product scams,
and online marketplace scams.
|
Source: National Institute of Justice Journal
|
|
This review of literature on the modern juvenile justice
system discusses the system’s establishment and development
history; it examines the available research on adolescent
development and outcomes of raise-the-age legislation and
court rulings on protections for youth under the age of 18
years. Age boundaries determine juvenile court original
jurisdiction of youth charged with law-violating behavior
that would be criminal if committed by an adult, although
cases can be moved to adult court through various transfer
mechanisms. As of 2022, nearly all states (49 states plus
the District of Columbia) had set 17 as the upper age limit
of juvenile court jurisdiction for delinquency or status
offenses. However, research has also shown that in some
places raising the upper age of juvenile court jurisdiction
to at least 18 has not affected youths’ recidivism rates.
Furthermore, the review found that among juvenile court
delinquency cases in 2020, 3% involved juveniles younger
than age 12, representing 15,083 children. Additionally,
over time, the number of cases in juvenile court has
decreased for all ages. From 2005 to 2020, the number of
delinquency cases declined 69%, from more than 1.6 million
cases to about 508,000 cases. Examination of national
juvenile court case rates, which take into account
differences in the numbers of juveniles under juvenile
court jurisdiction in the general population by age,
continue to demonstrate that youths ages 15, 16, and 17 are
the most likely to have delinquency cases in juvenile
court.
|
Source: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention
|
|
|
Student-centered pathways include practices designed to
meet each student's individual needs. This means creating
school learning environments that are personalized,
competency-based, student-driven and connected to practical
experiences. Student-centered pathways in high schools
support the development of skills and knowledge necessary
for success in postsecondary, career and civic life. In the
past, policy levers to create student-centered pathways for
high school students have been isolated and therefore
difficult to implement. This document offers policymakers
an opportunity to consider the connections between six
policy areas (shared vision, learning opportunities,
graduation requirements, accountability, state-level
support, and funding) that can support successful
implementation of student-centered pathways. Policymakers
can also draw inspiration from examples of how states have
leveraged each policy area. For example, in addition to
traditional diploma requirements, Indiana requires students
demonstrate employability skills and mastery of
postsecondary competencies to graduate. Students are
permitted to demonstrate employability skills through
project-based learning, service-learning or work-based
learning.
|
Source: Education Commission of the States
|
|
The newly released enrollment data from the National Center
on Education Statistics for the 2022–23 school year point
to moderate enrollment gains for traditional public
schools. The recent enrollment gains though are smaller
than the cumulative enrollment losses since 2019–20 and are
not uniform. This research paper takes stock of enrollment
losses today by comparing the distribution of changes in
public school enrollment since the COVID-19 pandemic to the
distribution of pre-pandemic changes across the nation.
Roughly 59%, 69%, and 69% of small, medium-sized, and large
schools, respectively, saw their enrollment decline between
2019–20 and 2022–23. One third of small, medium-sized, and
large schools with enrollment declines lost 26, 54, and 96
students or more, respectively (i.e., top third). The share
of schools experiencing such declines after COVID-19 is
larger than what would be expected based on historical
variation for medium-sized and large schools. Rural schools
and high schools are disproportionally represented among
schools with enrollment losses in the top third.
|
Source: Brookings Institute
|
|
Every year, local education agencies (LEAs) review the
information provided by households on school meal
applications and determine whether the students in the
household are eligible to receive free, reduced-price, or
paid school meals. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of
2010 added a provision that requires certain LEAs to
conduct a second, independent review of applications (IRA)
of those school meal applications to verify that the
correct determination has been reached. The IRA process was
first implemented in school year 2014-15. Data from the
first two years that the IRA process was in place showed
that few errors were caught during the second review, which
was unexpected. This review was conducted to understand the
IRA process and whether it is effective at identifying and
correcting errors. The study found that LEAs usually
classify student eligibility for school meals correctly;
less than 5% of applications were classified in error. LEAs
reported that the two biggest challenges with the IRA
process are receiving incomplete/illegible applications
from households and having available staff to conduct a
second review of applications. States perceive that LEAs of
all sizes struggle to complete the IRA process within the
required 10-day timeframe.
|
Source: Westat
|
|
|
About 6.7 million people or 3.3% of adults age 30 and over
lived with their grandchildren in 2021, according to a
recently released U.S. Census Bureau report on the
characteristics and geography of grandparents living with
grandchildren under the age of 18 in the United States.
Alaska, Hawaii and states in the Southeast and Southwest
had a higher share of grandparent-grandchildren households
than the national average while states in the Northeast,
Midwest and Pacific Northwest had lower shares.
Grandparents have long served critical roles in U.S.
families that are shaped by changing demographic trends,
such as increasing life expectancy, which allows
grandparents more years to develop relationships with
grandchildren. Cultural expectations of the role of
grandparents also contribute to differences in living
arrangements. Nationally, roughly 32.7% of grandparents
living with their grandchildren under the age of 18 were
responsible for their care. With the exception of the
District of Columbia, Florida and Maryland, states in the
South had higher percentages than the national average
while states on the West Coast tended to have lower
percentages. Alaska was higher and Hawaii was lower than
the national average. Arizona, Colorado, the District of
Columbia and Michigan were the only states or state
equivalents with estimates that were not significantly
different from the national average.
|
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau
|
|
Improper payments—those that should not have been made or
were made in the incorrect amount—have consistently been a
federal government-wide issue. Since Fiscal Year 2003,
cumulative improper payment estimates by executive branch
agencies have totaled about $2.7 trillion. Reducing
improper payments is critical to safeguarding federal
funds. In Fiscal Year 2023, 14 federal agencies made $236
billion in improper payments across 71 programs, a decrease
of about $11 billion from the prior Fiscal Year. Agencies
reported that about $175 billion (over 74%) of this total
was the result of overpayments. About $186 billion
(approximately 79%) was concentrated in five program areas:
Medicare, Medicaid, Federal Pandemic Unemployment
Assistance, Earned Income Tax Credit, and Paycheck
Protection Program Loan Forgiveness. However, the $236
billion total does not include certain programs that
agencies have determined are susceptible to significant
improper payments, such as the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services' Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development also did not report improper payment estimates
for the Office of Public and Indian Housing's Tenant Based
Rental Assistance program and the Office of Multifamily
Housing's Project-Based Rental Assistance program. As a
result, the government-wide estimate potentially does not
represent the full extent of improper payments. This report
also discusses agencies' compliance with legal requirements
for reporting and managing improper payments.
|
Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office
|
|
In this research, the authors evaluate three strategies
that transit operators might consider to increase
ridership: 1) increasing service on bus routes serving the
highest share of low-income riders, 2) increasing service
on those bus routes with the highest ridership, and 3)
further providing the high-ridership routes identified in
strategy 2 with exclusive bus lanes. In each scenario, the
authors double the service frequency of buses on the focus
routes and reduce the frequency on all other routes to
maintain the total vehicle revenue miles, making the
changes roughly cost-neutral. The authors tested these
scenarios for Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and Atlanta, Georgia,
using a modeling framework that combines CityCast, a
commercially available data-driven planning tool to
replicate observed travel patterns, and MATSim, an
open-source framework for implementing large-scale
agent-based transport simulations, to simulate how
travelers would change the route, mode, and time-of-day of
the trips they make in response to the service changes. The
results show substantial ridership gains for all but one
scenario, suggesting that these strategies may provide a
promising, low-cost means of increasing transit ridership
in some contexts. However, impacts varied across the two
case studies, indicating that local conditions play a role.
|
Source: Journal of Public Transportation
|
|
|
This report presents final 2022 U.S. mortality data on
deaths and death rates by demographic and medical
characteristics. Key findings include that life expectancy
for the U.S. population in 2022 was 77.5 years, an increase
of 1.1 years from 2021. The age-adjusted death rate
decreased by 9.2% from 879.7 deaths per 100,000 standard
population in 2021 to 798.8 in 2022. Age-specific death
rates increased from 2021 to 2022 for age groups 1–4 and
5–14 years and decreased for all age groups 15 years and
older. The 10 leading causes of death in 2022 remained the
same as in 2021, although some causes changed ranks. Heart
disease and cancer remained the top 2 leading causes in
2022. Four causes changed rank from 2021. Unintentional
injuries, the 4th leading cause of death in 2021, became
the 3rd leading cause in 2022, while COVID-19 dropped from
the 3rd leading cause to the 4th. Kidney disease went from
the 10th leading cause in 2021 to the 9th leading cause in
2022, while chronic liver disease and cirrhosis dropped
from the 9th leading cause to the 10th. The remaining
leading causes in 2022 (stroke, chronic lower respiratory
diseases, Alzheimer disease, and diabetes) remained at the
same ranks as in 2021. The infant mortality rate was 560.4
infant deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022, an increase
of 3.1% from the rate in 2021 (543.6).
|
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
|
|
Drug overdoses are one of the leading causes of injury
death in adults and have risen over the past several
decades in the United States. Overdoses involving synthetic
opioids (fentanyl, for example) and stimulants (cocaine and
methamphetamine, for example) have also risen in the past
few years. This report presents rates of drug overdose
deaths from the National Vital Statistics System over a
20-year period by demographic group and by the type of
drugs involved (specifically, opioids and stimulants), with
a focus on changes from 2021 to 2022. Key findings from
this report include that the age-adjusted rate of drug
overdose deaths increased from 8.2 deaths per 100,000
standard population in 2002 to 32.6 in 2022; however, the
rate did not significantly change between 2021 and 2022.
Rates decreased between 2021 and 2022 for people ages 15–34
and increased for those age 35 and older. Between 2021 and
2022, rates increased for all race and Hispanic-origin
groups, except Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
non-Hispanic and White non-Hispanic people. Between 2021
and 2022, the rate for synthetic opioids other than
methadone increased 4.1% from 21.8 to 22.7, while rates for
heroin, natural and semisynthetic opioids, and methadone
declined. Between 2021 and 2022, rates for cocaine and
psychostimulants with abuse potential increased.
|
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
|
|
The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) is a public health
surveillance system that monitors emerging trends and
characteristics of substance-related emergency department
visits. This report examines emergency department visits
involving alcohol from January 2021 to September 2023. The
report found that during this period an estimated 8,566,725
emergency department visits related to alcohol. Adults ages
26 to 44 had the highest rate of alcohol-related emergency
department visits at 1,489 per 100,000 people. Rates of
alcohol-related emergency department visits also varied by
demographic characteristics and location. Men had higher
rates of alcohol-related emergency department visits (1,318
per 100,000 people) than women (558 per 100,000 people).
The Northeast region also had higher rates of
alcohol-related emergency department visits 1,471 per
100,000 people) than other regions. The South had the
lowest rate of alcohol-related emergency department visits
at 528 per 100,000 people.
|
Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration
|
N O T E : An online subscription may be required to view some items.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Government Program Summaries (GPS) is a free resource for legislators and the public that provides descriptive information on over 200 state government programs. To provide fiscal data, GPS links to Transparency
Florida, the Legislature's website that includes continually updated information on the state's operating budget and daily expenditures by state agencies.
|
A publication of the Florida Legislature's Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability.
Click here to subscribe to this publication.
As a joint legislative unit, OPPAGA works with both the
Senate and the House of Representatives to conduct
objective research, program reviews, and contract
management for the Florida Legislature.
PolicyNotes, published every Friday, features reports, articles, and websites with timely information of interest to policymakers and researchers. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations
expressed by third parties as reported in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect OPPAGA's views.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
PolicyNotes provided that this section is preserved on all copies.
|
|