This document provides a project summary, discusses the research questions, and lays out the research design and methods of a randomized controlled trial that followed young men in a Young Adult Court (YAC) that specifically handles justice-system-involved young men, aged 18 to 25 years, in Orange County, California. The project had three research aims: to describe the perceived successes and challenges associated with involvement in San Francisco’s YAC among program graduates; to determine whether Orange County YAC participants differed from a randomized control group in their trajectories of criminal and antisocial behaviors, as well as other developmental and contextual outcomes during the two years following enrollment into the YAC; and to examine whether the Orange County YAC intervention impacts young minority adults across those outcomes and reduces unintentional effects on young adults of color of justice-system involvement. The goals of the YAC are to hold justice-involved young adults accountable in a developmentally appropriate way, reduce recidivism, and promote positive long-term outcomes. The paper also provides a discussion of the researchers’ activities and accomplishments, as well as a discussion of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the project, and an overview of their project results and findings. Research found that the San Francisco YAC has had 279 young adults accepted into the program at the time of data collection, with 92 successful cases (33%) and 95 court-terminated failure cases (34%), with the remaining cases still active.

After the passage of the Twenty-First Amendment, the regulation of alcohol in the U.S. largely takes place at the state level. While marijuana has been illegal at the federal level since 1937, states began legalizing marijuana for medical and adult use at the state level since 1996. Alcohol regulation, which was effectively reset in all states when alcohol was legalized at the federal level, is marked by divergence—significant variation in alcohol laws across states. Conversely, marijuana regulation, which has slowly spread across the U.S. state-by-state over the last 28 years, is marked by convergence—new marijuana reforms increasingly resemble other reforms. Alcohol and marijuana regulation in the U.S. experienced an exogenous shock with the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in significant changes to alcohol and marijuana regulation across the nation. This paper examines convergence and divergence in alcohol and marijuana regulation from 2020 to the present day, revisiting and reaffirming that previous theory and also applying a federalism lens to explain alcohol and marijuana regulation and predict future developments.

This paper documents several facts about graduate program graduation rates using administrative data covering public and non-profit graduate students in Texas. Despite conventional wisdom that most graduate students complete their programs, only 58% who started their program in 2004 graduated within 6 years. Between the 2004 and 2013 entering cohorts, graduate student completion rates grew by 10 percentage points. Graduation rates vary widely by field of study--ranging from an average of 81% for law programs to 53% for education programs. We also find large differences in graduation rates across institutions. On average, 72% of students who entered programs in flagship public universities graduated in 6 years compared to only 57% of those who entered programs in non-research intensive (non-R1) institutions. Graduate students who do not complete may face negative consequences due to lower average earnings and substantial levels of student debt.

Whether early childhood education is associated with a wide range of adult outcomes above and beyond individual- and family-level outcomes is unknown. As a consequence of improving educational and career success, it is postulated that participation in high quality, comprehensive programs can promote residence in more supportive community contexts in adulthood. The research team aimed to investigate whether participation in high-quality early childhood programs (ECP) in high-poverty neighborhoods is associated with neighborhood-level social determinants of health at midlife. Social determinants of health are factors that have a major impact on people’s health, well-being, and quality of life; examples include safe housing, transportation, and neighborhoods, racism, discrimination, and violence, education, job opportunities, and income, and access to nutritious foods and physical activity opportunities. Creating an Index of Structural Equality and Support (I-SES), the researchers use it as a positive measure of supports at midlife. The scores range from 0 to 9, with higher scores meaning greater endorsement of positive environment structures at midlife. They found that early childhood programming is associated with SDH in adulthood. Specifically, study participants growing up in high poverty neighborhoods (>40% of residents below federal poverty level) had lower mean I-SES scores than the lower poverty group. At midlife, however, the differential was accentuated and I-SES indicators were positively associated with educational attainment (years of education). Correlations with overall life satisfaction and self-rated health followed a similar pattern.. These findings reinforce the importance of early childhood education in addressing health disparities and contributing to healthier, more equitable communities and suggest that educational attainment is a key mechanism for health promotion.

For the first time, the U.S. Census Bureau is publishing monthly data on new business applications in Puerto Rico, information that provides a running tally of business activity on the island. This experimental data product was launched in March 2024 and the Puerto Rico dataset contains monthly statistics going back to July 2004. Two spikes in business applications stand out: (1) about a 225% increase from 487 applications in October of 2017 to 1,591 in October of 2018; and (2) about a 150% increase from 944 in April 2020 to 2,327 in April 2021. Many conditions can affect business applications. Events like Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which hit Puerto Rico in September 2017, and the global COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020 can have significant economic impacts on business creation. Several Census Bureau data products capture such economic impacts. The Census Bureau in April 2020 launched the Small Business Pulse Survey to track changing business conditions and challenges small businesses faced during the coronavirus pandemic. In July 2020, America Counts published an article identifying 2.4 million U.S. businesses in areas most vulnerable to hurricanes. In May 2024, the Census Bureau released additional data from the 2022 Annual Capital Expenditures Survey about the impact of the Coronavirus on U.S. businesses and if and when U.S. businesses returned to normal levels of operation.

Social insurance programs shield individuals from specific risks, but these programs are not necessarily independent of each other. The existence and scope of one program can potentially influence the use of others, especially when the risks covered by the programs are related. This study investigates the relationship between two mandated benefit programs in the United States: state paid sick leave (PSL) mandates and workers’ compensation. Unlike most developed countries, the U.S. lacks a federal PSL mandate; however, 15 states have implemented such policies. PSL mandates require firms to provide compensated time off for employee health-related needs, while workers’ compensation offers benefits to help workers recover from workplace injuries or illnesses. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, the study explores the impact of state PSL mandates on the usage of workers’ compensation benefits. The findings reveal meaningful spillover effects: when states adopt PSL requirements, there is a decrease in workers’ compensation benefit receipt. While some evidence suggests possible improvements in health, there are no observed reductions in workplace injury rates specifically, indicating that workers may substitute PSL benefits directly for workers’ compensation.

In 1996, the city of Atlanta hosted the Centennial Olympic Games, a global spectacle that promised to transform the city and elevate its status on the world stage. However, beneath the glitz and grandeur of the Olympics lay a more sobering reality: the displacement of communities, particularly people of color, through the use of eminent domain. This event serves as a poignant example of how large-scale sporting events can significantly impact urban communities, especially in terms of environmental and racial justice. Almost 30,000 Atlantans were uprooted from their homes and faced challenges in finding affordable housing, and about 9,000 homeless people were illegally arrested, contributing to long-term economic instability for constituents of color. Despite efforts to adopt sustainable practices, as seen in the London 2012 and Paris 2024 Olympics, the inconsistent application of these practices across different host cities reveals the ongoing challenge of balancing economic ambitions with environmental responsibility.

This report presents national results from the National Post-Acute and Long-term Care Study to describe providers and services users in seven major settings of paid, regulated post-acute and long-term care services in the United States. The data includes surveys of adult day services centers and residential care communities and administrative data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on home health agencies, hospices, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term care hospitals, and nursing homes. The findings show variation in characteristics of the seven post-acute and long-term care settings. About 68,150 providers served roughly 7.3 million people in the United States; about one-half of these providers were residential care communities, and about one-quarter were nursing homes. The Northeast had a higher percentage of adult day services centers than other settings, the Midwest had a higher percentage of nursing homes, the South had a higher percentage of long-term care hospitals, and the West had a higher percentage of residential care communities. Among the settings, more registered nurses were employed in inpatient rehabilitation facilities and long-term care hospitals, and more licensed practical nurses in home health agencies and long-term care hospitals. The most common services were skilled nursing and therapeutic services. Adult day services centers had the highest percentage of users younger than age 65, while nearly one-half of hospice and nursing home users were age 85 and older. Adult day services centers had the highest percentage of other non-Hispanic and Hispanic users among the settings. The percentage of users with selected diagnoses and activities of daily living difficulties varied by setting.

Older adults experienced fewer mental health challenges than younger adults during the COVID-19 pandemic but new research shows anxiety and depression levels among those 65 and older varied depending on their demographic characteristics and economic well-being. For example, older women were more likely than older men to struggle with mental health, according to an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. Although non-Hispanic White and Asian older adults in 2020 reported lower levels of mental health challenges than other groups, the differences essentially disappeared by 2023. The degree to which adults 65 and older struggled with mental health varied by sociodemographic factors. During the period from April 23 to July 21, 2020 (Phase 1), older women (26.5%) were more likely than older men (18.6%) to struggle with mental health. This disparity was also present during the time period August 23 to October 30, 2023 (Phase 3), with more older women (21.5%) than men (16.9%) reporting symptoms in the latest cycle. Results were not as straightforward by race and ethnicity. During Phase 1, for example, both non-Hispanic White and Asian adults 65 and older reported rates of struggle less than other groups. (The rates for non-Hispanic Whites and Asians were not statistically different.) However most race and Hispanic origin differences were no longer statistically significant during Phase 3, although both older non-Hispanic White and Black adults reported lower levels of struggle than those who were non-Hispanic of Some Other Race or Hispanic of any race. In this latter phase, rates for older non-Hispanic White, Asian and Black adults were not statistically different. Rates of mental health struggle improved between the two phases for both non-Hispanic White and Black adults 65 and older but not among older non-Hispanic Asian and non-Hispanic of Some Other Race individuals. Reported struggles with anxiety and depression, however, decreased among both groups during the cycle, indicating mental health outcomes broadly improved as the pandemic wore on.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary's directive on human trafficking and the agency's strategy for combating human trafficking outline ambitious goals to address the harms of this criminal activity on its victims and society. However, the logistics and tactics needed to properly implement a victim-centered approach in all facets of law enforcement can be complex. A first step in implementing a victim-centered approach to countering human trafficking is to understand what is already known, what policies may hinder or promote a victim-centered approach, and what training and programming can assist law enforcement. This knowledge can assist DHS's Center for Countering Human Trafficking in both recognizing the importance of a victim-centered approach and understanding how to factor it into day-to-day duties. To address the challenges and outcomes stated above, the authors conducted a review of academic and gray literature to build out a baseline of knowledge. The authors also summarize applicable practices (external to DHS) that implement a victim-centered approach in the following key areas: victim identification and screening, training, and law enforcement operations. There is limited research in peer-reviewed articles and gray literature on how to improve victim identification and screening for human trafficking in a law enforcement setting. Effective training programs can create a workplace with a common understanding of trauma. Organizational change is needed to implement a victim-centered approach in law enforcement operations.