RRForum brings together public and private stakeholders—regulatory and enforcement agencies; attorneys general; public health agencies and advocates; retailers and their associations; distributors and producers; and researchers in order to –
identify and promulgate Best Practices to prevent underage sales of age-restricted products; and
examine the impacts of RR policies from the diverse perspectives of these different stakeholders.
Purpose
The Organization
Originally a joint project of the Heller Graduate School, Brandeis University and the Florida Center for Prevention Research at Florida State University, RRForum is now a 501 (C) 3 non-profit corporation. The President of RRForum is Brad Krevor, Ph.D.
Background
RRForum has emerged from the work of state attorneys general who—under the authority of Consumer Protection statutes—have been engaging national retail chains in efforts to improve their age-verification and underage sales refusal for age-restricted products. Retailers already had adopted policies to prohibit unlawful sales to minors, but these policies did not translate into appropriate and consistent store-level conduct.
Through a series of regional meetings in 1999 organized by Brandeis University’s Heller School with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, it became clear that retailers already had adopted policies to prohibit unlawful sales to minors, but these policies did not translate into appropriate and consistent store-level conduct. Then, in March 2000, Brandeis conducted a meeting for national stakeholders in Washington, D.C., hosted by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, to consider the feasibility—and desirability—of public-private cooperation in promoting effective RR policies and practices. Although the desire for further dialogue was strong, the potential for public-private cooperation was impeded by the lack of certainty as to what specific measures would be effective in reducing unlawful underage sales.
In response to this dilemma, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (part of SAMHSA) commissioned a federal guidance document, Report on Best Practices for Responsible Retailing (“Best Practices Report”), under the direction of Dr. Brad Krevor of the Heller School. The Best Practices Report contained three principal innovations:
identification of the constituent parts of Responsible Retailing;
emphasis upon managerial systems to supervise, incentivize, and monitor clerk conduct, and
calls upon public agencies not only to enforce sales to minors laws, but also to assist retailers in identifying and implementing Responsible Retailing Best Practices—an “enforcement + assistance” model. The Best Practices Report recognizes that the performance of store-level Responsible Retailing practices is affected by a community context and by state- and community-level laws, policies and resources.
RRForum was established in early 2003 as a way of continuing the discussions among national stakeholders who participated in the meetings with attorneys general and in the development of the Best Practices Report. Through its field studies to operationalize, and evaluate (see Field Studies), the recommendations of the Best Practices Report, RRForum is now closely associated with this “enforcement + assistance” model. In June, 2006, RRForum became a separate legal, non-profit corporation. In January, 2007, RRForum received IRS approval for tax-exempt, 501(C)3 status.