About the Committee on Law and Justice

The Committee on Law and Justice is a standing committee that was established by the National Research Council in 1975 to enable increased scientific understanding of crime and justice issues. The committee’s mission is to help improve research methods and information to inform and support the development of national and state-level criminal justice policy, and to extend and help advance criminological and criminal justice research. Through its activities the committee will develop a framework for identifying new areas of criminal justice research; assist in resolving scientific controversies; extend the research agenda in established areas; promote theory development; and assist with planning for new research areas and large projects. The committee will accomplish these tasks through presentations and discussion at its meetings and by planning and overseeing workshops, seminars, symposia, and studies on various topics of interest to the field. The topics explored by the committee include the areas of prevention; science, technology, and crime; new models of justice; ethnicity and crime; white collar and economic crime; the performance of juries; or various issues with respect to international or transnational crime.