Criminal Justice Researcher

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Job Description

CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESEARCHER

At

The Institute for Justice Education Reform:

PURPOSE

The Institute for Justice Education Reform is the nation’s only nonprofit advocacy organization solely dedicated to increased, reformed, and regulated training for U.S. law enforcement and criminal justice employees.

What are the problems with police training?

• In every state, minimum training requirements for police officers are less than what is mandated for other regulated professions such as contractors, electricians, plumbers and cosmetologists. As an example, states require an average of 667 hours of training for police officers yet, cosmetologists are required to receive about 1,500 hours.

• Police kill more than 3 people per day, over 1,000 humans a year on average. At least 25% of the people that police killed are in mental health crisis or suicidal but police receive on average, only 8 hours of basic training, learning to deal with these emergencies.

• Indigenous People, African Americans, and Latinos are more than twice as likely as white Americans to be killed by police. However, law enforcement receives, on average, less than 20 hours of training dedicated to culture, diversity or human bias.

• Police are often trained on an unscientific, archaic and debunked theories. One, known as the "21-Foot-Rule", teaches police to kill someone if they are with 21 feet of an officer by merely holding a knife or any other object an officer deems a weapon. This training has been used to defend deadly force with other objects such as a spoon, stapler, and yard stick. Despite wide recognition of this flawed and fatal philosophy, officers continue to be trained in this junk science and subsequently killed numerous needlessly.

• Police training dedicates about 1/3rd of their instruction to firearms and tactical scenarios. However, police officers are twice as likely to die due to an accident but receive only a fraction of training in preventing these deaths.

IFJER seeks to provide advocacy, research, analysis, training, and policy and curricula recommendations supported by a legislative action for positions employed within the judicial system such as police and sheriffs, corrections, probation and parole, alcohol enforcement, park rangers, coroners and special jurisdiction police.

Position Description:

We are looking for volunteers with research skills who are interested in public policy and research, data collection relating to criminal justice employees (often police) training.

We are interested in building a diverse group of policy sleuths who want to research and write summaries about the issues that impact public safety regarding police killings, excessive use of force, mass incarceration, the cause of police death/ injury, legislation matters and more.

We are an equal opportunity organization and include all demographics, as long as you have passion. Most research can be conducted at home (in your PJ’s!)

Responsibilities:

• Organize and participate in the execution of major research programs.
• Conduct research using specific criminal justice related websites to obtain information relating to legislation, civil actions (lawsuits), police policy, FBI & BJS statistics, current curriculum and published or on-going studies relating to law enforcement training.
• Enter data into our internal system.
• Perform additional administrative research duties as needed.
• Assist in recruiting, identifying, and training volunteer coordinators and volunteers.
• Perform other duties or special projects as needed.

Skills:

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite applications.
• Proficiency in the use of the internet and web research.
• Familiarity with legislative and court records such as PACER is preferred.
• Detail oriented, with good written and oral communication skills.
• Reliability - Must be able to complete tasks in the window of time/dates needed. Many of projects are contingent on completion of particular research
• Ability to handle confidential information and be able to work with minimal supervision.
• Ability to volunteer during flexible hours or days (days/evenings/weekends) if required.

The Institute for Justice Education Reform is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.