Judicial Response to Offender Accountability and Victim Safety

The Encouraging Innovation: Field-Initiated (FI) Program is funded under the Edward Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation program and a carve out from the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program that is aimed at combating extraordinary or precipitous increases in crime. The FI Program furthers the Department’s mission by trying new approaches, addressing gaps in responses, building or translating research knowledge, or building capacity to address the issues that bring fresh perspectives and ideas to enhance practices and prevent crime in the field.

The Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence will utilize grant funds to implement a Lethality Assessment Program (LAP) designed to accomplish three main objectives: 1) to adapt the Lethality Screen for use as a pre-trial risk assessment tool for offenders and develop an attendant protocol to be used in conjunction with the LAP; 2) to implement the pre-trial risk assessment tool and protocol in three Maryland counties as a pilot and conduct a randomized controlled trial to examine the effectiveness of the tool and protocol; and 3) to evaluate and assess the impact of the pre-trial risk assessment tool and protocol on offender accountability and victim safety. The proposed project will enable the courts to incorporate a standardized empirical instrument to improve the effective response to offenders, as well as to victims. CA/NCF