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Hello, well I hope you are enjoying reading
Mears book. It is actually really interesting when you think about it in terms of
developing policies. But work on this because we have several more
chapters to do. Chapter 3 today, A Solution for Improving
Criminal Justice Policy. The focus of our textbook is that the
evaluation research will help make criminal justice policies more accountable
and effective. In evaluation research framework,
as a part of policy making efforts, can ensure that:
Number one, the need for policy is clearly identified.
Number two, policies reast on a solid foundation.
Number three, are implemented well. Number four,
are effective. And number five, achieve their goals in a
cost efficient manner. Now you will see all of this on page 35, so
hopefully you will enjoy reading that, thinking more deeply about it.
These five dimensions constitute the corner stone of the
evaluation hiearchy. Chapter three describes the history
of evaluation research. In this chapter the author describes
eah type of evaluation, and the logic of the
hiearchy. And you'll see that as you look at the figure that lays out those different
steps. It was not until the 1930s that the research
activity was actually initiated. By the
1950s, program evaluation was commonplace.
Mears uses a quote from Peter ???? in 2004 to define
policy evaluation as "The use of social research methods
to systematically investigate the effectiveness of
social intervention programs, and in ways that are adapted to
their political and organizational environments, and are designed to inform
social action, to improve social condition. Now that's really a
relatively long definition given by ????, but it's on page 36.
So go back and look at that, think a little bit about it. Mears goes on to say that
evaluation research aim's to produce empirically based evidence
about policies. Not ????? accounts that confirm
opionions about them. So again based on empirical evidence.
Mears applies an evaluation process aproach to criminal justice policy.
With the following goals in mind: One, shows
how evaluation research can be used to improve criminal justice policy.
Number two, present the argument that many criminal justice
policies lack a solid evidence based foundation. Three,
evaluation should be integrated into criminal justice policy development
as to increase the effectiveness and
eficiency of the criminal justice system. Now we mentioned this before when we were
looking at chapters one and two, because again, Mears is going to be very critical
of the fact that there is probably very little theoretical
foundation for many of our present day criminal justice policies.
Ok, on page 37 Mears elaborated a little bit more on
the evaluation hiearchy. He states that it's a hiearchy because in our
hiearchy one level builds on a prior
level. Consider the first level of the evaluation hiearchy.
A needs evaluation. The basic idea is that
that there is a need for social policy, and it should be established
before the policy actually takes place of takes shape.
Policies should be justified on the basis of some assessment of needs.
And of course you will see that on page 37. A theory evaluation
provides guidence about such possibilities.
Theory evaluation helps to ensure that a simple, causal logic
exists for tracking a problem. Once
a solution or condition is identified, and
probably I should say once a situation, sorry about that, once
a situation or condition is identified, and there is a need for any policy
intervention, a credible theory for intervention exists.
Then the third level of the evaluation hierarchy becomes appropriet.
Again you'll see this firgure in the chapter
2 I do believe. So you will be able to see how the stepts are outlined there.
In implementation evaluation, sometimes referred to as
process evaluation on page 39. That also exists and we we'll
spend a whole chapter on that implementation evaluation. Well,
let me also say that implementation evaluation is conducted beause
we want to know if the policy has actually been implemented
as designed. Mears uses a drug court as an example.
And he says in order to determine the effectiveness of a drug court
policy or program, we actually need to know if the
participants are recieving treatment. He goes further to state that implementation
evaluations are useful for several reasons, and so
some of those resons are: Number one, they provide critical
information about the level and quality of policy implementation.
Number two, *** wether a policy achieves it's
intended objective. Number three, provide information
to interpret why impact evaluation may identify
less that expected results. After we determine
a need for policy, created or established a
theoretical foundation or design that is associated with the
condition for which a policy is being considered, and
services associated with the implimentation of the policy have
been done, then the next step consists of conducting an
outcome or an impact evaluation. Now keep in mind what I'm doing here is actually
talking about the diferent steps you will see in the first figure.
And that outlines each one of those, so that's really what I've jsut
talked about, just to give you a brief idea about it. A main goal of the impact
evaluation is through empirical research. To identify the
change in outcomes because of the institutionalization of
a policy. Mears says that impact evaluation
not only measures policy outcomes, but also claims to
*** wether the policy is the cause of any change in the
outcome. When we have a policy we really want to see what is the outcome.
And so it is important that we can do and implement
patient evalation to see if that is the case. As identified
clearly in the last stage of the evaluatio hierarchy is the cost efficiency
evaluation. Policy maker, and
the public clearly have a vested interest in knowing what
is in the bank, or
knowing what is the *** for the buck. In other words they want to know are we
getting our money's worth. That's exactly what most of the public, and especially
the policy maker's are concerned about. These programs, do
they pay off, do they really benifit from having them. Ok,
Mear's position is that evaluation increases accountability
and evidence based policy. He says that seams since-able
that we would want social policies grounded in knowledge or
evidence about what works best. In chapter three
Mears addresses evaluation research verses preformance
monitoring. Performance monitoring involves the ongoing analysis
of the process and outcome. Some
benifits from conducting research centers around improving
criminal justice policies directly and indirectly.
What we've got is in chapter three we have covered the whole hierarchy
and so eventually what we will do now is see each one of those hierarchies in
a chapter. In chapter
four, we're going to talk about needs evaluation. Again, keep
in mind we're moving through each hierarchy that the author has
in chapter two. These evaluations help to identify
wether a problem exists. Chapter four lays out the process
and steps involved in determining where a problem exists and
whether a policy ought to follow. A easy evaluation
constitutes the first step in the evaluation hierarchy. Without an established
need, without clear evidence of a problem, why
proceed to develop and implement a policy. An effective response
to a problem requires first identifying the specific problem.
and so this is what we are going to see, these are the steps that we move through. Criminal
justice administrators usually lack training and evaluation
research. Or they are not that sensitized to the importance
of assessing the wide range of potential problems within
their purview. Evaluating whether or not a problem exists entails a
number of conditions. Mears lists those for us to follow and
they are in this manner: Number one, number matter.
In other words the size of the problem or the condition. A big problem
calls for more attention. Number two, absolute and relitive
changes in the magnitude of a problem are important. Number three,
knowing something about the distribution of a problem is also very helpfull
in deciding to implement a policy. Again you'll see all of these
outlined in this chapter. Mears suggest that we can also begin
from the oposit direction. On page 60 he says in the
textbook, he states that we can begin with an existing policy,
or a proposed poicy, and we can work together to determin if this specific
policy is needed or will work on a particular need.
In other words, you determin wether a particular policy
is wanted. Now, some of you may remember something about grounded theory,
and this is probably exactly like that. Our research begins
not necessarily with the theory, but with a problem, then we take the problem and identify
and connect it with theory, and so this is really the idea here that I think Mears is suggesting
Ok, but anyways hold on to that, we'll move through that a little later on.
Mears suggests that there are three questions to ask when examining
a need for an existing or a proposed policy. First,
are existing methods insufficient to address some social
problem. You have to determine if all existing policies fall short.
Second, he says, all existing efforts to address
some social problem not only insufficient, but also not amendable
to correction. Third, in comparison to existing efforts
to respond, is the proposed or newly implemented policy
a needed substitute or supliment. Mear's reminds
us that need evaluations and theory evaluations are intertwined.
He states, a well conducted evaluation of the
need for a particular policy, typicaly will require delving into
the theoretical logic and evidence for the policy. and he said
that on page 61, so you want to look at that, think about that a little more closely.
In this chapter he goes back and forth discussing the ability to
conduct a need evaluation aimed at determining if a
social problem exists, and determining whether an exist policy
will take care of a social policy will take care of a social policy identified as
existing. So, in this chapter, exists a section on how
to conduct a need evaluation. Mears states that the first thing
is to conceptualize or aim to describe the possible
social problem. He says that the second step is to develop
a quatitative estimate of the problem. You need to have some
hard evidence. Some fact that a condition exists and that it is a problem
to society. Even which segment of society, wether a large
portion or only a small mass of people. He says that there is no single
approch to quantifying a problem. Usualy one may
begin to collect interviews, conduct research,
find focus goups, use any method that will allow you to see or
witness there is a problem. A condition that warents
fixing. Once this information is gathered, it will help you
as you move forward to formulate a policy. Mears
says that to develop an effective policy response, a
need evaluation also will want to describe the current
effects, well it's really not effects, it's efforts, sorry about that.
To address the problem and the causes of it, so that's on page
67. another section within this chapter deals with why
need evaluation is important. Within this section Mears identifies
seven explanations, and their all outlined begining on page
67. One, he says perhaps the most important, they help
us to identify wether a problem exists, and the scope and nature
of the problem. Number two, provide guidence about
wether a policy should be retained. Again, keep in mind
that this is what's the importance of having a
need evaluation done. Three, provide guidence about the type of
policy response that should be considered. Number four,
can aid in efforts to provide, or to prioritize
the problem that merit attention. Five,
can highlight research gaps that idealy would be addressed before
implementing a policy. Number six, can highlight
dimentions that should be used to assess a policies effectiveness.
And number seven, a more journalized benefit is that they can help
clarify policy discussions and debates. So again, that's
seven, they're outlined, page 67 or so, and you'll see that he has more
elaboration on those when you begin to real that chapter. Well, enjoy
this chapter, for there is a wealth of information within it. The
ideal situation is that Mears
evaluations occur prior to implementation of any policy.