Within a year of the act's passage, the NIJ awarded about $14 million in research and evaluation grants to fund the deployment of additional police officers, and the NIJ is sponsoring evaluations designed to document the effectiveness of community policing approaches. The NIJ has also responded to provisions of the act relating to violence against women, including the special needs of women in minority and Indian communities. The Violence Against Women Act provides funding for a variety of enforcement and prosecution programs that focus on violence prevention, victim services, stalking, and domestic assault. The NIJ has funded research and evaluation studies of drug courts and boot camps. The NIJ actively solicits the views of criminal justice professionals to identify their most critical problems and to respond appropriately in accordance with the goals of preventing crime and improving the criminal justice system. 1 photograph