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Evaluating Criminal Justice Reforms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Jonathan D. Casper  and
David Brereton
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Abstract

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Research on the implementation of criminal justice reforms, such as sentence guidelines, determinate sentence laws, and no plea bargaining policies, has proliferated in recent years. This research raises a variety of concerns about how one should evaluate the effectiveness of policy innovations. We deal here with recurring issues in the evaluation of criminal justice innovations, including the problem of specifying goals against which to measure “effectiveness,” the need to interpret research findings in light of theories about how criminal courts operate, and the importance of choosing appropriate time periods in which to conduct implementation or evaluation studies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , 1984 , pp. 121 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 by The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

*

For helping us to think about these issues and for suggesting several of the ideas argued here, we are indebted to Kennette Benedict. Milton Heumann, Michael Gottfredson, and Peter Nardulli provided helpful criticisms of previous drafts. Richard Lempert made valuable substantive and editorial contributions. The research was supported by the National Institute of Justice (79-NI-AX-0042). All responsibility for the arguments and conclusions rests with the authors.

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