Overview The SMART Office seeks applications for the enhancement and advancement of the Sexual Violence Prevention Initiative (SVPI).

The SMART Office assists states, the District of Columbia, territories and tribal jurisdictions with developing and/or enhancing programs designed to implement

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the requirements of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, and promotes innovation and best practices in protecting the public from sexual violence.

This program furthers the work of SVPI, a project designed to utilize research and practice to prevent sexual violence and improve sex offender monitoring and to inform OJP’s research and grant-making efforts in this area.

Statutory Authority:
Funds for this solicitation will be made available pursuant to the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act (34 U.S.C.

20911, et seq.), as well as authority provided by a full-year appropriations act for FY 201 8.

As of the writing of this solicitation, the Department of Justice is operating under a short-term Continuing Appropriations Act; no full-year appropriation for the Department has been enacted for FY 201 8.

Project-Specific Information Sex offender registration and notification plays an important role in protecting the public.

Also important is a broader scope of activities necessary to monitor sex offenders, reduce recidivism and prevent sexual violence.

Recognizing the significant impact of sexual violence on victims and society, and the important role scientific evidence plays in the development and implementation of effective policies and practices, including those focused on sex offenders, the SMART Office works to identify and disseminate information from state-of-the-art research on central and emerging issues in sexual violence prevention and sex offender programming to inform policy and practice in the field.

In 2011, the SMART Office launched the Sex Offender Management Assessment and Planning Initiative designed to assess the state of knowledge in sex offender management and to inform OJP's research and grant-making efforts in this area.

As part of this effort, the office gathered information about research and practice in the field and enlisted practitioners to provide details about sex offender-related programs and practices that are promising or effective, and identify the needs of the various disciplines involved in monitoring and managing this population.

The SMART Office enlisted a team of subject-matter experts and practitioners to review the scholarly literature on sexual offending and to develop annotated summaries of the research for dissemination to the field.

To gain insight into emerging issues, promising practices and pressing needs of the field at the state and local levels, an informal national inventory of sex offender-related policies and practices was conducted in 201 1.

Subsequently, the SMART Office hosted the Sex Offender Management Research and Practice Discussion Forum in February 201 2.

At this event, national experts — both researchers and practitioners — gathered to discuss the research summaries and inventory results to further refine what is known about the current state of sex offender-related policies and programming, gaps in research and practice and the needs of the different disciplines involved in this work.

To date, the project has yielded 13 literature review chapters, 14 research briefs, a nine-part webinar series and numerous national, state and local-level presentations and trainings on sex offense specific subjects.

These products are available on the SMART Office’s website, www.smart.gov/SOMAPI/index.html.

Additionally, recommendations derived from the literature reviews and research and practice discussion forum have informed SMART’s grant programs.

The Sexual Violence Prevention Initiative seeks to build upon and expand the Sex Offender Management Assessment and Planning Initiative.