Research and the Development of Public Policy: The Case of Drugs and Violent Crime

The literature on policy analysis refers to several steps in the process: identification and definition of the problem, design and development of a policy and program to resolve the problem, implementation of the policy and program, evaluation of its consequences in terms of desired outcomes, and modification or replacement of the policy based on evaluation findings. Three subprocesses by which program and policy initiatives are generated include budget preparation, policy agenda presentation, and crisis response. This article demonstrates how data and data analyses from a series of studies on drugs and homicide have been and can used to identify problem areas and to develop policy or program initiatives through these three subprocesses. 3 notes and 45 references