NCJ Number
191001
Journal
Criminal Justice: The International Journal of Policy and Practice Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2001 Pages: 27-58
Date Published
February 2001
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This article evaluates how far criminological policy and victim policy is research driven.
Abstract
Crime victims have appeared prominently on the public agenda during the past two decades. The growth of modern criminology is associated with the rise of the Positivist School, which believes in scientific research as providing the key to the explanation of social conduct and as the basis for developing social policies for the achievement of social change. The need to base criminological policy on empirical research has been one of the main tenets of modern positivist criminology. One way to gain a perspective regarding the role (or nonrole) of research in policy formulation is to examine the way policies are formulated in the public sector and to identify the role of research in this process. Some see policies as emerging against a background of competing interests, values, or ideologies; others see it as a compromise or human agency. The role of research is clearly secondary in these theories. Much of the research on victims’ needs has developed “through the back door” by virtue of victimization surveys. The pace of victim-oriented reform has not been matched by the instigation of evaluative research of these reforms. The rights of victims have been recognized on the level of declared policies and legislation, but, as in other areas of criminal policy, these policies are not necessarily based upon the findings of research, even when available. The uncertainty as to the explanation for the apparent failure of victim-related reforms calls for an intensive monitoring of such reforms and their implementation. 72 notes and 155 references