The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is the research, evelopment and evaluation agency of the United States Department of Justice. NIJ, along with the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), and other program offices, comprises the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) branch of the Department of Justice.