The Influence of Research on Criminal Justice Policy Making

Abstract

Criminal justice policy making is a vertical and horizontal political dynamic. The criminal justice researcher who understands the decision-making process within state criminal justice policy-making agencies can influence decisions by providing research to meet policy makers’ needs. This paper provides a schematic view on the criminal justice decision-making process and discusses how researchers can make their work relevant within it. Criminal justice policy research seeks to provide assessment and analysis of crime and provide strategies for its reduction. The pages of criminal justice and criminology journals, reviews, and books are replete with research and policy analysis. One issue that has received less attention, however, is how criminal justice policy planning agencies use criminal justice research in program development and policy making. To receive federal funding, each state maintains a criminal justice policy planning agency. State and local law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, corrections, and non-profit organizations receive funds through these criminal justice planning agencies to support criminal justice initiatives. Criminal justice researchers can make their work more relevant to criminal justice policy makers by understanding the politics, power, and policy dynamics that govern how these agencies operate. Criminal Justice Planning: Values Matter Criminal justice policy and planning are moral-based entities. By this I mean that they operate in an arena that deals with moral questions of right and wrong, what constitutes justice or injustice, as well as the application of individual responsibility, culpability, and blame. The presence of these moral attributes separates the field of criminal justice and Arthur H. Garrison is the director and principal consultant for Garrison Consultants, LLC. He has more than 12 years experience in criminal justice policy making at the state and municipal levels. He has written more than 30 program evaluations, policy reports, and white papers and has published more than 20 articles in various peer reviewed criminal justice journals and law reviews.