DOJ Names Nancy La Vigne to Head National Institute of Justice
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Prominent justice expert Nancy La Vigne has been appointed director of the nation’s pivotal agency in charge of spearheading new crime research.
La Vigne, who most recently served as a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice and director of the Council’s Task Force on Policing, will head the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research arm of the Office of Justice Programs at the Department of Justice.
The NIJ, which funds physical and social science research, development and evaluation projects in all fields of criminal justice, awarded more than $3.7 billion in project and research grants in 2021. The funds supported more than 7,000 research projects and scholarships.
La Vigne’s appointment comes at a time when the political climate in favor of justice reform has turned chilly as a result of the nationwide surge in violent crime. While research has made clear that reforms in sentencing and bail have had little or no impact on the crime rise, evidence-based research has taken on even more importance, reform advocates agree.
Nancy La Vigne
“Throughout her distinguished career, Nancy La Vigne has dedicated her enormous talent to bridging the divide between researchers, practitioners and policymakers, helping justice system professionals apply science and data to our nation’s most pressing public safety challenges,” Assistant Attorney General Amy L. Solomon, Principal Deputy of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), said in a statement announcing the appointment.
“We will be fortunate to rely on her remarkable ability to translate knowledge to practice in the service of safer communities and a more just and equitable society.”
La Vigne, whose expertise ranges from policing and corrections reform to reentry, criminal justice technologies and evidence-based criminal justice practices, previously served as Vice President of Justice Policy at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit social policy research organization based in Washington, D.C.
From 2014 to 2016, she served as executive director of the congressionally mandated bipartisan Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections Reform.
La Vigne has also served as a panelist and moderator at events organized by the Center on Media Crime and Justice at John Jay College, publisher of The Crime Report—most recently at the March 3-4 Harry Frank Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America, where she moderated a panel on the future of policing reform.
Earlier in her career, La Vigne was the founding director of the Crime Mapping Research Center.
She holds a bachelor’s degree from Smith College, a master’s in public affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin, and a doctorate from the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
Editor’s Note: The video of the panel can be accessed here.
She has also written for The Crime Report. See “Five Misconceptions About Police Reform,” August 13, 2021
La Vigne assumes the helm of the NIJ May 9, replacing Dr. Jennifer Scherer, who has served as the Institute’s acting director since January 2021 and will resume her role as the office’s principal deputy director.
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