For this Discussion Board, students are asked to identify a local criminal justice agency in their community that has a program that has received negative media attention. Find one in Brighton,MA

1. What are the goals of the agency?
2. What are the outcomes of the agency?
3. How would you evaluate the agency?
4. In light of the media criticism, do you believe the agency is accurately represented? What does the criticism reflect (i.e. agency goals, personnel, something else)?

Evaluation Research and Policy Analysis
Chapter 11

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Introduction
Evaluation research: refers to a research purpose rather than a specific method; seeks to evaluate the impact of interventions; if some result was produced
Problem analysis: designed to help public officials choose from alternative future actions
Evidence-based policy: actions of justice agencies are linked to evidence used for planning and evaluation
Evidence generation: nonprofit organizations that document and evaluate programing to create evidence that can be shared with others

Appropriate Topics for Evaluation and Problem Analysis
Evaluation research is appropriate whenever some policy intervention occurs or is planned
A policy intervention is action taken for the purpose of producing some intended result
Problem analysis focuses on deciding what intervention should be pursued
Future oriented

Linking the Process to Evaluation
Are policies being implemented as planned?
Are policies achieving their intended goals?
Evaluation seeks to link intended actions and goals of policy to empirical evidence that:
Impact assessment: examines whether policies are having the desired effects
Process evaluation: examines whether policies are being carried out as planned
Often conducted together

Getting Started
Evaluability Assessment – “preevaluation” – researcher determines whether requisite conditions are present
Support from relevant organizations
What goals and objectives are; how they are translated into program components
What kinds of records or data are available
Who has a direct or indirect stake in the program

Problem Formulation and Measurement 1
Different stakeholders often have different goals and views as to how a program should actually operate
Stakeholders: persons and organizations with a direct interest in the program
Must clearly specify program goals – desired outcomes
Create objectives – operationalized statements

Problem Formulation and Measurement 2
Definition and measurement – specify target/beneficiary population, decide between using current measures or creating new ones
Measure program contexts, outcomes, program delivery

Designs for Program Evaluation
Randomized evaluation designs – avoids selection bias, allows assumption that groups created by random assignment are statistically equivalent; may not be suitable when agency or staff makes exceptions
Caseflow – represents process through which subjects are accumulated into experimental and control groups
Treatment integrity – whether an experimental intervention is delivered as intended; ≈ reliability
Threatened by midstream changes in program

Conditions Requisite for Randomized Experiments
Staff must accept random assignment and agree to minimize exceptions to randomization
Caseflow must produce enough subjects in E and C for statistical tests
Experimental interventions must be consistently applied to E and withheld from C
Need equivalence prior to intervention, and ability to detect differences in outcome measures after intervention

Home Detention: Two Randomized Studies
Combining home detention with ELMO
Juvenile program paid less attention to delivering program elements and using ELMO info than adult
Difficult to maintain desired level of control over experimental conditions
Also difficult when more than one organization is involved
Randomization does not control for variation in treatment integrity and program delivery; utilize other methods

Quasi-Experimental Designs
No random assignment to E and C
Often “nested” in experimental designs as backups
Ex post evaluation – conducted after experimental program has gone into effect
Lack built-in controls for selection & other IV threats
You must construct E and C groups as similar as possible
In interrupted time-series designs, note causal process (did/did not produce change in outcome measure)

Problem Analysis and
Scientific Realism
Realists suggest that similar interventions will have different outcomes in different contexts
Evaluators should search for mechanisms (IVs) acting in context (assorted intervening variables) to explain outcomes (DVs)
Centers on problems not particular incidences
Problem-oriented policing: begins by analyzing a number of incidences and then take steps to address the problem
Problem solving: fundamental took in problem-oriented policing

Other Applications of Policy Analysis
Space- and Time-based Analysis – increased prevalence due to technological advances
Problem solving tools and processes
SARA
SACSI

Political Context of Applied Research
Different stakeholder interests can produce conflicting perspectives on evaluations
Researcher must identify stakeholders & perspectives
Educate stakeholders on why evaluation should be conducted
Explain that applied research is used to determine what works and what does not
Political concerns may color evaluation! Be careful!