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Is Research Working?: Revisiting the Research and Effective Practice Agenda (From Community Justice: Issues for Probation and Criminal Justice, P 257-282, 2005, Jane Winstone and Francis Pakes, eds. -- See NCJ-211782)

NCJ Number
211796
Author(s)
James McGuire
Date Published
2005
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This chapter identifies gaps and obstacles that impede the transfer of research findings into practice in the treatment of offenders in Great Britain, and ways of overcoming these impediments are considered.
Abstract
Assessments of evaluations of offender treatment programs published in the 1970s cast doubt on the cost-effectiveness of many programs, such that the rebuilding of confidence in the ability of treatment interventions to reduce criminal behavior has been a gradual process. From the mid-1980s onwards, the balance of evidence has slowly shifted toward the view that well-designed programs tailored to offender needs and problems can contribute to positive change in a significant percentage of offenders. Continuing and increased confidence in the cost-effectiveness of offender treatment, however, depends on well-designed evaluation research whose findings are implemented to improve program outcomes. Some of the obstacles to this transfer of evaluation findings into program modifications are the limitations of the evidence base; the absence of tested techniques for implementing research findings in program practice; the disconnect between the contexts for successful demonstration programs and the contexts for their replication; myths and misunderstandings; the nature of programs; the alleged absence of theory; the denial of diversity; cultural and ideological resistance; individual versus social factors; community justice and social control; and a harsher penal environment. Ways of addressing each of these obstacles are suggested. 91 references