Organizing Research to Improve Criminal Justice Policy

Abstract

For research to become an appropriate part of policy development, a number of deliberate improvements in the research and policy process are required. Some researchers will need to be organized to use available research for urgent requests. Researchers will need to do research on relevant issues more often within preestablished schedules and write clearer research reports. The research must be of sufficient quality to form the base for policy, be undertaken in a manner likely to encourage its use, and be followed up if it is to be used. The need for high-quality research and the long-term compilation of knowledge applicable to and used in policy issues require close, but explicit, collaboration between policy makers and university researchers. The policy maker or planner also must appreciate the advantages of rational decision making and make commitments to research by reading research findings and discussing their implications with researchers, by helping to identify research priorities, and by clarifying long-term goals. As the development of useful knowledge through research is a long process, its use to resolve fundamental problems requires an attempt to foresee future policy issues and ensure long- term interaction between policy and research. Research will contribute to the resolving of short-term crises only within the context of long-term cooperation between policy makers and researchers.