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The Community Public Health and Safety Networks were established as part of Washington State's Violence Prevention Act (Act). The legislation anticipated a strong outcomes orientation on the part of networks. The Institute found that initial contracts between networks and providers often included measures of activities instead of outcomes. This report looks at the obstacles networks face in moving toward an outcomes orientation rather than a measure of activities.
In 1990, the Washington State Legislature passed the Community Protection Act, a comprehensive set of laws that increased prison terms for sex offenders, established registration and notification laws, authorized funds for treatment of adult and juvenile sex offenders, and provided services for victims of sexual assault. The legislation directed the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to evaluate the effectiveness of these state-supported programs. The charts included in this report were selected from this research and cover a number of topics related to this research effort.
The Department of Community, Trade, and Economic Development (CTED) administers the Youth Violence Prevention and Intervention Program. Through a competitive process, the Office of Crime Victims Advocacy within CTED provides federal and state funding to community-based projects focused on preventing youth violence. This report summarizes findings from the 1997 evaluation of these projects. The evaluation concentrated on ten projects, those in their first and second year of funding.
This topic brief discusses the rate of reported child abuse and neglect cases in Washington State between 1991 and 1997. Information supplied by Washington's Child Protective Services (CPS) shows the rate of referrals and alleged victims of child abuse by various age categories.
The rate of youth in state-funded foster care in Washington State is shown in this topic brief. The statewide trend in foster care placement between 1970 and 1997 is presented; county-level data from 1987 to 1997 are also listed.
This report provides information on trends of "at-risk" behaviors of youth in Washington State as of 1998. Since 1995, the Institute has published trends in the rates of violent crime, teen substance abuse, teen pregnancy, teen suicide, dropping out of school, child abuse placements, domestic violence, and foster home placements. These trends establish a baseline to assess statewide progress in measuring the outcomes established in the 1994 Violence Reduction Act.
This companion report compares the 1996 county rates for eight indicators of at-risk behaviors of youth in Washington. County rates for all available years may be viewed on the Institute's searchable database.
The 1990 Legislature directed the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to evaluate the effectiveness of the Community Protection Act. As part of this evaluation, the Institute contracted with the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center at Washington State University to conduct telephone interviews with a sample of Washington State residents regarding the state's community notification law. The results of the survey indicated an overwhelming majority of respondents were familiar with the law and believed it was very important.
This report analyzes the projects funded by the Community Public Health and Safety Networks during the first year funding cycle (FY1997). Information was obtained for 544 projects funded by 42 (of 53) Networks. Project outcomes and measurement tools are examined, as well as the types of work performed and any results produced. Projects funded for this first year lasted about four months. Therefore, only initial results are discussed in this report.
Washington State law provides for the civil commitment of extremely dangerous sex offenders. This study describes the 61 adult offenders who were referred for possible commitment as predators but for whom such petitions for civil commitment were not filed, during the first six years after the law's passage (July 1990 through June 1996). The subsequent criminal behavior of these 61 offenders was tracked in official records for the time period following their release from custody. During this period, more than one-half of the group were rearrested. The highest percentage of offenders were rearrested for nonsexual crimes.