Translational Criminology Research Fellowship

• NCJ Number: 250379
• Author(s): Jessica Shaw .
• Date Published: November 2015
• Length: 17 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2014-IJ-CX-0033
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description

Annotation

This report addresses the rationale for and the activities and benefits of the National Institute of Justice's (NIJ's) Translational Criminology Research Fellow for FY 2014.

Abstract

NIJ is the research and development arm of the U.S. Justice Department. As such, it is committed to "fostering science-based criminal justice practice." As part of NIJ's ongoing initiative to overcome the gap between the findings of scientific research and criminal justice practices, it sought and supported a Translational Criminology Research Fellow in FY2014. The selected Fellow worked in residency at NIJ for 1 year, helping NIJ staff to become more systematic and deliberate in its conceptualization of the science-practice gap, its development, and implementation of activities intended to bridge this gap, followed by measurement of the impact of such activities. The Fellow engaged in a wide range of activities to document NIJ's current conceptualization of the science-practice gap, activities underway to target this gap, and their impact. Developing a comprehensive understanding of NIJ's current strategies was the first step in building a foundation for organizing and systematizing future planning, management, and evaluation. The Fellow assembled and met regularly with a working group representative of NIJ staff, so as to gain insight into NIJ processes. These efforts culminated in a set of internal documents to be used by NIJ to plan for more systematic and deliberate efforts to translate research findings into practices that improve outcomes. This resulted in a visualization of NIJ's conceptualization of the science-practice gap, a logic model that links NIJ's bridging activities to their needed resources and desired outcomes, as well as an evaluation plan for assessing impact. 6 references .