When leaders in the field of criminal justice are going to develop, change or implement policies within their field, it is always important that these developments, changes and implementations are grounded in evidence. Evidence-based practice is universally recognized as essential to good decision making (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart & Wright, 2003). In order to use the evidence, one has to obtain the evidence—and that happens by way of statistical analysis and research. Researchers who gather, assess and use statistical data to understand an issue and devise a solution to a problem are grounding their work in evidence that can be quantified. When evidence can be quantified—i.e., statistically measured—it is easier to see when policies are working and when they are not. For example, in criminal justice policy making, leaders might want to institute a new way method for police to report internally on abuses in the workplace. The method they choose, however, may have been shown to be ineffective through statistical analysis by a number of studies conducted by researchers in the criminal justice field. If the leaders see this or have access to the data, they can re-think their desire to implement such an ineffective policy and save their department a great deal of headache and cost by going back to the drawing board and developing or implementing a policy that will work, according to the statistical data available. This paper will show why using statistical data is so important and critical for criminal justice leadership: without it, leaders are essentially making decisions without evidence based on quantifiably measured information—i.e., they are flying blindly. Statistical data helps leaders to understand in clear, precise and concise numbers exactly to what degree a strategy or policy is effective. Statistics have a way...
They also are the result of procedures that can be re-tested and verified, so there is less risk that a researcher is simply making up results in order to produce an outcome that is desired by this or that stakeholder. Such is the problem with qualitative studies: the research methods involved in qualitative analysis can be less rigorous and informative for researchers and professionals than quantitative analysis. Yet some leaders will prefer basing their policies on qualitative literature because it is thematic, conceptual and oftentimes more emotionally appealing. Quantitative studies, however, appeal to the logical side of the mind, the empirical aspect of research, which requires physical evidence that can be seen and duplicated in a second and third study so that results and statistics are verified. Statistical data can be tested and proved accurate in ways that qualitative data simply cannot be.
In the experimental community, the researchers instituted a media campaign to increase seat-belt usage, followed by increased police enforcement of the seat-belt law. It was found that the percentage of drivers using seat belts increased in the experimental community but remained stable or declined slightly in the comparison community (Piquero and Piquero, 2002). An example of the before-and-after design would be the analysis of the impact of the Massachusetts Bartley-Fox
Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice Research Ethical issues in terms of research are sometimes difficult to pinpoint, but all are made in order to ensure defendant's constitutional rights and to protect any other research participants from potential harm. Many researchers note that the basis for ethical research in criminal justice is the focus on upholding accurate data reporting and the placement of strong ethical leadership within the workplace. Both of which
Justice One of the most consistent problems facing the criminal justice system is the influence of institutional culture on the administration of justice, both at the level of the police and the courts. While there are of course written guidelines and laws dictating the actions and decision-making process of both the police and the courts, in practice there is a substantial amount of leeway when it comes to dealing with specific
Crime Intelligence Analysis: To Apprehend And Prevent Violent Crimes And Criminals Corrections/Police -- Intelligence Criminal Intelligence Analysis is used to handle all kinds of violent crimes happening in the world. Organized violent crimes include corruption (bribery), extortion, alcohol and tobacco smuggling, counterfeiting, arms trafficking, drug trafficking, fraud, loan sharking, gambling (bookmaking and numbers), smuggling of humans, prostitution and pornography, murder and terrorism. This white paper discusses how crime intelligence analysis can be used
Using statistics in criminal justice leads to evidence-based policy and practice. Criminal justice leadership can rely on statistical data to understand which policies are working and why, and how to change policies that are not yielding desired results. Leaders who rely on statistics are less likely to base policy decisions and judgments regarding criminal justice practices on politics rather than on achieving specific goals such as crime rate reduction. Therefore,
Research also showed that offenders tend to be part of or return to communities with high concentrations of offenders. The concentration of offenders in these neighborhoods affects the community negatively by increasing the stigma associated with the community and also saddling the community with additional problems without providing added resources needed for restoring or maintaining order. The ultimate consequence is the that the criminal justice system destabilizes informal networks
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