Impermanence of Planned Change (From Policy and Theory in Criminal Justice, P 140-159, 1990, Don M Gottfredson and Ronald V Clarke, eds. -- See NCJ-130506)

• NCJ Number: 130515
• Author(s): H Toch; J D Grant
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 20 pages
• Sale Source: Avebury Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Report (Technical Assistance)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This analysis of factors influencing the acceptance and durability of innovations in criminal justice concludes that several strategies are available for improving their staying power.

Abstract

Innovations sometimes do not last because of personnel turnover, constraints on managers, changes in content along with retention of the form of an intervention, and other factors. In addition, innovations imposed from the top and brought in from the outside seldom endure, whereas some self-developed programs continue to be internalized, modified, improved, and integrated into continuing operations. Six strategies are available for improving the durability of planned change, although none of these strategies has been effective on its own. These include developing better dissemination strategies for promising innovations, limiting innovation efforts to modest changes that can be accommodated by existing policy and social structure, developing settings hospitable to innovations, developing a new institution, establishing a systematic modification of an agency's own program, and focusing on developing formal knowledge. Specific strategies should focus on expanding local participation in decisionmaking and establishing information-sharing networks among local practitioners and researchers. 50 references