American Criminal Justice Policy

Daniel P. Mears is a Professor at the Florida State University College of Criminology and Criminal Justice. He has published widely in criminology, including more than 80 articles, chapters, and reports, and has examined a wide range of criminal justice policies. His work has appeared in Criminology, the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, the Law and Society Review and other journals, and his views, including editorials, have been frequently cited in such media outlets as the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today.

“Criminal justice policy in the United States is most often based on outdated customs, ideologically based politics, and ill-conceived common sense. Sober but also optimistic in his outlook, Daniel Mears seeks to sophisticate crime control discussions by showing us how to use various evaluation strategies to create informative, policy-relevant evidence. Masterfully written and rich with real-world examples, this volume is, at once, essential reading for scholars, ideal for teaching students the nature and importance of evaluation research, and invaluable as a blueprint for policymakers wishing to design effective and humane criminal justice interventions.” – Francis T. Cullen, Distinguished Research Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati

• 1. Introduction; 2. Irrational criminal justice policy; 3. A solution for improving criminal justice policy: evaluation research; 4. Needs evaluations; 5. Theory evaluations; 6. Implementation evaluations; 7. Outcome evaluations and impact evaluations; 8. Cost-efficiency evaluations; 9. Conclusion.