NCJ Number
82857
Date Published
1982
Length
38 pages
Annotation
The report discusses the need for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to establish policies and procedures which recognize the need for changes in the design and management of its special emphasis research demonstration, and service delivery programs.
Abstract
Until this is done, the office will achieve only limited results from its research and demonstration programs. During fiscal years 1975-81, about $223 million funded the program, which awarded grants and contracts for developing and implementing new approaches to dealing with juvenile delinquency, improving the capabilities of public and private agencies serving youths, and developing and implementing prevention and treatment programs for juveniles who commit serious crimes. The office's policies and procedures address mainly service delivery and virtually ignore research and demonstration. A successful research and demonstration effort should conduct research on an issue of national scope, develop a program based on the research findings, test and evaluate the program rigorously, and demonstrate the program in several different types of jurisdictions. Among problems in past research and demonstration initiatives were the failure to clearly establish research and demonstration as the initiatives's purpose and the failure to make evaluation an integral part of the initiatives. The administrator of the office should ensure that program announcements clearly establish the purpose of research and demonstration initiatives, use research results to develop the initiatives, integrate evaluation into the initiatives, and make technical assistance available to grant recipients. Footnotes are included. An appendix presents comments from the Department of Justice, which agreed with the recommendations in the draft of this report.