In this brief paper, researcher Julie C. Abril provides suggestions for crafting an effective tribal crime research policy prioritizing implementation.
The author, Julie C. Abril, prepared these notes after attending a seminar of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Crime and Justice Advancing the Federal Research Agenda on Tribal Crime and Justice. The topics she discusses include the politicization of Indian Country crime, the need for interdisciplinarity, the need for privacy, data ownership, IRB issues, the importance of helping tribal governments to become self-sufficient, and the needs of scientific researchers. She provides suggestions to help guide future pursuits in this area and outlines some key considerations when crafting an effective crime, violence, and justice research policy for Indian Country focused primarily on implementation fidelity. She borrows from Schneider and Ingram’s 1997 Policy Design for Democracy, and from Joan Petersilia’s work in crime control policy and empirical research, in addition to her own work conducting field research with Native American Indian tribes located across the United States.