NCJ Number
85275
Editor(s)
R Roesch,
R R Corrado
Date Published
1981
Length
159 pages
Annotation
Eight papers examine several evaluation methodologies used in criminal justice research and demonstrate their applications to such issues as the effectiveness of delinquency prevention programs, the relative merits of treatment and deterrence, juvenile court diversion, the deinstitutionalization of status offenders, and the role of the criminal trial jury.
Abstract
An analysis of delinquency prevention programs concludes that experimental methodologies are useful in evaluating these programs and rejects the view that 'nothing works' in the treatment of delinquency. A review of corrections research argues that neither the treatment model nor the deterrence model should be accepted uncritically; for several criteria, the treatment model fares better than deterrence. Simple analytic methods are often adequate for policy analysis because the use of more complex measures does not change the results. A description of the evolution of a juvenile diversion project in Illinois emphasizes the influence of the setting on the initial results and the subsequent difficulties when a project moved from the experimental stage to official adoption. A discussion of diversion issues includes due process safeguards and the potential for social control in diversion. An evaluation of the deinstitutionalization program in Clark County, Wash., concludes that it reduced detention and recidivism rates of status offenders. The evaluation of the criminal trial jury in Canada uses survey and experimental methods to illustrate methodological and other issues facing researchers who evaluate jury functioning. Figures, tables, notes, and chapter reference lists are provided.