History  
 
 

JRC was founded by Jan Roehl, Ph.D., on January 1, 1996, as the Justice Research Center. For ten years, the Justice Research Center conducted methodologically rigorous program evaluations and other studies while producing useful results for practitioners and policy makers. Working through over 30 grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice and others, JRC evaluated a wide range of criminal and civil justice programs, focusing on community crime prevention programs, innovative community policing practices, and drug courts. JRC developed self-evaluation manuals and management information systems for adult and juvenile drug courts, providing these problem-solving courts with the tools to monitor client progress, produce summary statistics and reports, and evaluate program outcomes. These evaluation and research projects are described in Research Projects and Publications.

In 2006, building on 30 years of expertise and experience in grant writing, project management, and research, Dr. Roehl began offering consulting services to cities, public agencies, and private and non-profit organizations. In the past two years, Dr. Roehl has helped secure grants from $5,000, to support a city’s community and youth events, to $2.5 million, to engineer and test a system for preventing stormwater runoff into biologically sensitive ocean waters.

Dr. Roehl also continues her work in criminal justice research and evaluation. She recently conducted community surveys on public safety for the Pacific Grove, California, Police Department and the Del Monte Forest Property Owners Association in Pebble Beach, California. She is currently a senior member of the evaluation team for the third national evaluation of the Weed and Seed Program being conducted by RTI under funding from the Department of Justice.

   
  Bio of Jan Roehl, Ph.D.
   
 

Jan Roehl, Ph.D., is the President and founder of JRC, a nationally recognized expert in research methods and the evaluation of justice and partnership programs, and an accomplished grant writer and project manager. Over the past 30 years, Dr. Roehl has directed numerous field research studies, assessing the strategies and effectiveness of a wide variety of criminal and civil justice programs. While with the Institute for Social Analysis from 1975 to 1995, she conducted studies of community crime prevention, community-based anti-drug efforts, domestic violence programs, alternative dispute resolution processes, drug prevention partnerships, and other criminal and civil justice programs. Dr. Roehl served as project director for the national evaluation of the Neighborhood Justice Centers in the late 1970's, the first field test of now commonplace alternative dispute resolution programs, and in the mid-1990's, directed the first national process evaluation of the original 19 Weed and Seed programs. As part of the current national evaluation team, she is studying the impact of nearly 300 Weed and Seed programs.

Since establishing JRC in 1996, Dr. Roehl has led research efforts into community partnerships, community policing, civil remedies, and domestic violence risk assessment. She evaluated the Monterey County adult and juvenile drug courts and spearheaded the development of self-evaluation manuals and management information systems for adult and juvenile drug courts.

Dr. Roehl writes grant applications for public agencies and nonprofits on numerous topics, including public safety (e.g., interoperable communications among law enforcement agencies, fire station backup generators), the physical environment (e.g., trails, habitat restoration, stormwater runoff prevention), youth and community activities, support for the arts, and sustainable communities. She enjoys working with expert, administrative, and fiscal staff on proposal development and project management.


Working with Jacksonville Police Department, 1985.
 

Dr. Roehl co-edited Civil Remedies and Crime Prevention with Lorraine Mazerolle, and has published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and government reports on community policing, civil remedies, drug courts, dispute resolution, community crime prevention, domestic violence risk assessment, and partnerships. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in 1988. Dr. Roehl currently serves on the Traffic Safety Commission in her hometown of Pacific Grove, California. 

Dr. Roehl’s professional history is summarized in her resume. She works with contractual staff as needed for assistance with specific tasks such as data entry, and relies on a national network of experts and consultants for other assistance as needed.

 
 

   
  Past and present clients/funders  
   
  Government agencies: 
 
  • National Institute of Justice
  • State Justice Institute
  • Bureau of Justice Assistance
  • Executive Office for Weed and Seed
  • Monterey County Consolidated Courts
  • Monterey County Probation Department
  • City of Carmel, California
  • City of Gonzales, California
  • City of Pacific Grove, California
  • Seattle Police Department
  • Pacific Grove Police Department
  • Downtown Business Improvement District, Pacific Grove, California 
   
  Universities: 
 
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • University of Illinois, Chicago
  • University of Cincinnati 
 
  Non-profit and private organizations: 
 
  • Urban Institute
  • Reasearch Triangle, Inc.
  • National Association for Community Mediation
  • Safe Horizon, Inc.
  • Carmel Ideas Foundation
  • Del Monte Properties Owners Association
  • Seaside Police Activities League
  • Sunset Center, Inc