Improving Tribal Justice Data: Consultation, Recruitment and Cognitive Testing Strategies for Law Enforcement Agencies and Court Systems in Indian Country

• In Event: From Experiment to Insight: Shaping the Future of Justice Surveys

Abstract

Accurate and reliable crime and justice information on tribal lands remains a challenge due to the concurrent and overlapping criminal jurisdiction among the three sovereigns: the Federal, State and tribal justice systems. The Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 requires BJS to establish and implement a tribal crime data collection system, including capturing operational functions from tribal law enforcement agencies and tribal court systems. For the next Census of Tribal Law Enforcement Agencies and Census of Tribal Court Systems data collections, BJS took a tribal-centered approach to engage tribal nations to be involved in item development and methodological considerations intended to yield increased participation. This presentation will discuss the primary steps undertaken by BJS, including: 1) extensive consultation with tribes and stakeholders; 2) partnered with tribal justice experts on the recruitment of respondents; and 3) coordinated cognition testing and interviewing of the draft web-based questionnaires. The field test and interviews involved a sample of tribal law enforcement agencies and tribal court systems from different states, stratified by the resident population size and Public Law 83-280 status of the tribe.

Author

• Steven Perry, DOJ / OJP / Bureau of Justice Statistics