Statewide Crime Victim Needs Assessment and Gap Analysis
The Minnesota Office of Justice Programs (OJP) began work on a statwide crime victim needs assessment in 2019 to gather information about current services available to crime victims and the gaps to be filled to ensure their equitable access across the state.
This project sought to identify the following:
(1) populations that currently lack access or
have insufficient access to victim services;
(2) victim services needed throughout the state; and
(3) barriers that prevent or limit access to
victim services.
Online surveys were sent to victim service programs, community organizations, and law enforcement agencies. In 2020, OJP contracted with ACET, Inc., to complete the needs assessment, including conducting focus groups with people who have experienced crime and preparing a final report with data from the surveys and focus group analysis.
Biennial Human Trafficking Report to the Legislature
In accordance with
Minnesota statute, the Minnesota SAC conducts a study of labor and sex trafficking activities in Minnesota every two years. The SAC compiles data and information pertaining to the following elements: (1) trafficking-related arrests, charges, and convictions; (2) the number of trafficking victims and basic descriptors of those victims (i.e., age, sex, race, and ethnicity); (3) information on trafficking routes and patterns as well as methods of transportation; and (4) information on the social factors, including pornography, that contribute to and foster trafficking. The most recent report was completed in 2019 and can be found
here; prior year's reports can be found
here.
Ethnic and Racial Disparities Minnesota's Juvenile Justice System
Each year the Minnesota SAC is responsbile for collecting data from various criminal and juvenile justice agencies from throughout the state to ensure that Minnesota is in compliance with the
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. As part of this data collection effort, the SAC measures the extent to which youth of color have contact with the juvenile justice system relative to white/non-Latinx youth. As a follow-up to the
SAC's 2012 report, the SAC will produce a new comprehensive report that tracks racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system in Minnesota over the past seven years, as well as efforts made to reduce these disparities. The report is expected to be available in the fall of 2020.
Minnesota Criminal Justice Debt and Recidivism Project
The SAC recently completed work on a project that examined the prevelence and extent of fines, fees, and restitution on gross misdemeanor- and felony-level probationers in Minnesota, as well as released prisoners. This study examined case and offender characteristics related to the imposition of economic sanctions, as well as the total amounts of sanctions imposed. Moreover, this study analyzed whether or not these debts (and the payment of these debts) was associated with various recidivism outcomes. This report will be available on this site soon.
