NCJ Number
208195
Date Published
November 2003
Length
76 pages
Annotation
Written for program managers responsible for improving the delivery of safety, security, and access to justice in any country, this guide describes the process and explains the principles for selecting indicators to measure progress toward greater safety and justice for citizens.
Abstract
Part 1, which focuses on using indicators effectively, first defines an indicator as "a measure that helps answer the question of how much, or whether, progress is being made toward a certain objective." It then describes the process of designing practical and effective indicators in both data-poor and data-rich environments; and it distinguishes among strategic, institutional, and activity indicators. Principles are suggested for constructing small batteries of powerful indicators to measure progress toward specific policy outcomes. Part 2 describes indicators that encompass the entire spectrum of the safety and justice sector, contrasting them with those indicators that focus on specific institutions within the sector. The first chapter in this part describes indicators of safety and security, and the second chapter describes indicators of accessible justice. Part 3 describes indicators that measure progress toward institutional objectives for a variety of state institutions responsible for safety, security, and accessible justice. Part 4 identifies and discusses the challenges of building indicators that measure the outcomes produced by the variety of nonstate institutions across the safety and justice sector. It then suggests three outcomes and associated indicators that might be implemented. One chapter describes participatory techniques that would allow data collection to remain the responsibility of nonstate institutions. 65 notes