Reference no: EM132249959

Program Evaluation in Criminal Justice

Select a public safety program (as opposed to a public policy) as your topic to conduct a program evaluation. You will conduct an actual evaluation or propose an intervention within any given policy domain within the field of criminal justice. You to work individually on your program evaluation/intervention proposal.

For example, you can do a program evaluation of a community policing program, a drug court program, I.C.E., etc. Select a program that is interest to you.

Selected topic is (community policing program.)

In terms of your major writing assignment, you will be responsible for choosing the policy domain you are interested in and identify one program within that domain for your program evaluation. In your final paper, you will propose and/or develop a new program (or alter an existing program) within the same policy domain.

The goal for your final paper is to build upon one policy area and program within that area so that you can gain a higher level of knowledge and expertise than you would if your energies were scattered across multiple domains and programs throughout the quarter.

Please note, CJ 425 is a continuation of CJ 421. In addition to added concepts and reading material (e.g., creative problem solving and applied research methods), we continue to use the concepts and strategies of policy analysis developed in CJ 421 to continue to prepare to conduct an actual evaluation or propose an intervention within any given policy domain within the field of criminal justice.

For your evaluation, I suggest that you structure your program evaluation by introducing the reader to your program evaluation by briefly describing the program you are evaluating and then use Welsh and Harris' seven-stage model for planned change to conduct your program evaluation including:

• Identify the problem the program is attempting to solve

• What are the program's goals and objectives

• What is the design of the program

• What are the elements of the program's action plan

• Describe the implementation and monitoring of the program

• Evaluating outcomes

• Reassessment and Review

Finally, discuss your findings and write a conclusion for your program evaluation. You can follow the outline below (or use your own outline) related to your selected program.

I. Introduction

II. The Problem

III. Program Goals and Objectives

IV. Program Design

V. Action Plan

VI. Implementation and Monitoring

VII. Evaluating Outcomes

VIII. Reassessment and Review

IX. Conclusion

Text: Welsh & Harris. (2008). Criminal Justice Policy and Planning. Lexis-Nexis/Anderson Publishing. ISBN:978-1-59345-508-8

A final research paper will conclude your experience in this course. Building from your midterm prospectus paper, you will add to and conclude your proposal. This assignment examines your ability to conceptualize and (potentially) implement informed program evaluation research in the field of criminal justice. APA formatting will be required.

This assignment should be between 10 and 12 pages long.