NCJ Number
75295
Date Published
1981
Length
27 pages
Annotation
Sounder methodological techniques and research designs are needed for research in corrections; yet, fanaticism regarding methodological rigor is unlikely to produce research which resolves many critical corrections issues.
Abstract
The lack of impact that research and evaluation have had on corrections is due to the failure of researchers to ask the right questions or relevant questions, as well as defects in research methodologies. The field of study is further troubled by the conflicting expectations and purposes of such interest groups as the public, guards, correctional administrators, and the prisoners themselves and by the prison environment which renders experiments ethically questionable, costly, and interruptive. Moreover, the researchers themselves, often academic scholars, cause problems by producing their results in academic and not practical or useable forms, by retreating to their academic circles with their information, and by not communicating results to the right level of correctional administration. Practical areas in corrections that have been neglected and are in need of sound research are the issues of rehabilitation, determinate sentencing, parole, violence in corrections, minorities and corrections, the courts, management, and community-based corrections. Fifty-three references are provided.