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Building Better Policies on Better Knowledge (From Challenge of Crime in a Free Society: Looking Back, Looking Forward: Research Forum: Proceedings of the Symposium on the 30th Anniversary of the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Washington, D.C., June 19-21, 1

NCJ Number
171288
Author(s)
M Tonry
Date Published
1998
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This paper considers the influence over the past 30 years of the recommendations of the President's Crime Commission of 1967 regarding research on crime, criminal justice system operations, and policymaking.
Abstract
The analysis focuses on structural issues relating to how Federal criminal justice research and statistics should be organized if they are to maximally achieve the aims of the President's Commission. It also explains the specific needs for national data series specified by the Commission and examines whether and to what extent those data series have been established. The final section considers whether the innovations that the President's Commission set in motion have furthered its goal of improved policies resulting from improvements in the scope and quality of available policy-relevant knowledge. The analysis concludes that the research and statistics recommendations had mixed effects. Positive results were the creation of the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). Although the Commission's core research recommendations were never implemented, NIJ has sponsored important research that has advanced understanding and informed policymaking. The research has tended to be short-term and to emphasize evaluations rather than basic issues, and the Federal Government has generally not followed the Commission's recommendation to sponsor basic research on crime and justice processes. 61 references