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The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs

The Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice, was established by the Justice Assistance Act of 1984 and later reauthorized to provide federal leadership, coordination, and assistance to make the nation's justice system more efficient and effective in preventing and controlling crime. OJP and its program bureaus and offices are responsible for collecting statistical data and conducting analyses; identifying emerging criminal justice issues; developing and testing promising approaches to address these issues; evaluating program results, and disseminating these findings and other information to state and local governments.

The office is headed by an Assistant Attorney General who, by statute and delegation of authority from the Attorney General, establishes, guides, promotes, and coordinates policy; focuses efforts on the priorities established by the President and the Attorney General, and promotes coordination among the bureaus and offices within OJP. The bureaus are:

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In addition to these five bureaus, OJP has four program offices and a policy office, the Violence Against Women Office, which leads a comprehensive national effort to combine tough new federal laws with assistance to states and localities in the fight against domestic violence and other crimes against women. The OJP program offices include:

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OJP's American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) Affairs Desk, coordinates AI/AN-related programmatic activity across the bureaus and program offices and serves as an information resource center for American Indian and Alaskan Native criminal justice interests. Seven offices within OJP provide agency-wide support. They are:

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The General Counsel's office is playing a lead role in the work of OJP's Executive Council (Information Technology), which is developing a coordinated grant funding strategy to enable state and local governments to implement compatible technologies that serve the collective needs of many criminal justice components without duplication or unintended system overlap. Additionally, the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) provides information services in support of most of the bureaus and program offices (the Office for Victims of Crime funds its own clearinghouse).

Through the programs developed and funded by its bureaus and offices, OJP works to form partnerships among federal, state, and local government officials to control drug abuse and trafficking; reduce and prevent crime; rehabilitate neighborhoods; improve the administration of justice in America; meet the needs of crime victims; and address problems such as gang violence, prison crowding, juvenile crime, and white-collar crime. The functions of each bureau or program office are interrelated. For example, the statistics generated by the Bureau of Justice Statistics may drive the research that is conducted through the National Institute of Justice and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Research results, in turn generate new programs that receive support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Although some research and technical assistance is provided directly by OJP's bureaus and offices, most of the work is accomplished through federal financial assistance to scholars, practitioners, experts, and state and local governments and agencies.

Many of the program bureaus and offices award formula grants to state agencies, which, in turn, subgrant funds to units of state and local government. Formula grant programs in such areas as drug control and system improvement, juvenile justice, victims compensation, and victims assistance, are administered by state agencies designated by each state's Governor. Discretionary grant funds are announced in the Federal Register or through program solicitations. Grant applications are made directly to the sponsoring OJP bureau or program office.

For more information, please contact:

Office of Justice Programs (OJP),
     U.S. Department of Justice
810 Seventh Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20531
Tel:
Web site:

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