Research & Publications
Service Delivery in County-Owned Detention Facilities
By: Jibril Abdum-Muyhamin & Donnie Charleston
However, far too few examine the issues facing juvenile detention facilities. More pointedly,
there is a tremendous lack of research available that examines the unique and competing
challenges of ensuring public safety while creating the opportunity for service use by juvenile
offenders. This report examines how North Carolina’s county run detention facilities are facing these unique challenges.
Standardized Gang Analysis Protocol: Beyond Basic Identification
By: M.M. Parker, PhD. & Donnie Charleston
For years researchers and law enforcement administrators have struggled with gang
definitions and classification. This research brief represents a step toward creating a classification
system that addresses many of the problems faced by researchers and practitioners:
over-reliance on overt markers, use of outdated conceptual language, and an inability to
bridge the divide between law enforcement practitioners and researchers. Drawing upon
years of experience as a gang unit specialist in a metropolitan police department, Dr. Parker
has created a tool which represents a first step toward creating a tool that will ideally be of use
to both researchers and police officers.
Disproportionate Minority Contact in North Carolina
By: Abel E. Ekpunobi, D.P.A., George P. Wilson, Ph.D., Gwendolyn Chunn, M.A.
Chien Ju Huang, Ph.D., & James C. Davis, Ph.D.
North Carolina was selected as one of five states to be a pilot state in the federal Disproportionate
Minority Contact Reduction initiative. This initiative was aimed at decreasing the over-representation
of minority youth in the juvenile justice system. Since the initial pilot phase, all states have been
mandated by the federal government to address DMC. The Institute was contracted by the state
Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to examine this issue and generate a
report of its findings. This report represents those findings and is one of only a few reports nationally
that used advanced statistical analysis to examine the issue.