On the one hand, the importance of evaluation findings for crime control policy now
appears to be well understood. On the other hand, the contribution of evaluative data to
those findings and to that policy seems much less well established. This paper examines
some of the weaknesses of the data base presently available for evaluation in the criminal
justice area and relates the quality of evaluation findings to the quality of that data
support. A case study (the national-level evaluation of the High-Impact Anti-Crime
Program) serves to illustrate the points made and to develop recommendations for new
efforts needed in this area.
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