Community-engaged scholarship: the experience of ongoing collaboration between criminal justice professionals and scholars at the University of Saskatchewan

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the experiences of our academic research centre, which is dedicated to conducting community-engaged scholarship (CES) with criminal justice professionals from government and non-profit sectors. In doing so, we describe the benefits and challenges we have observed in collaborating with criminal justice agencies as it pertains to the relevance of the research conducted, ability to implement recommendations and measure outcomes, implications for data collection methods, access to knowledge and expertise, expectations about the research, communication and organizational change. We also present our partners’ perceptions of working collaboratively with a university centre. Some of the benefits they identified include being able to access external research, improve their programmes, engage in capacity building, and make better decisions; few challenges were mentioned. Further, we describe the key ingredients that have helped us sustain our collaborative relationships: mutually beneficial partnerships, clear expectations regarding expected deliverables, continuous communication and formalization of the partnership. Finally, our paper concludes with a discussion about future opportunities in CES with criminal justice professionals and considerations for other academics interested in following a similar path.