Activity 6: Analysis and Data Management (100 points)

Your Activity responses should be both grammatically and mechanically correct and formatted in the same fashion as the Activity itself. If there is a Part A, your response should identify a Part A, etc. In addition, you must appropriately cite all resources used in your response and document them in a bibliography using APA style. (100 points) (A 4-page response is required.)

Locate two peer reviewed journal articles that explore a criminal justice program policy. For example, DARE or Scared Straight. Provide a complete overview of the program(s) that the studies are examining and the methodology being used in the study.

Then after reading the article identify how the researchers applied steps in policy experiments. These steps include:

1. Choose an interesting problem—a policy question that people really care about or an existing procedure that clearly needs improvement.
2. Do some creative thinking to solve legal and ethical issues that may arise.
3. Rigorously maintain the random assignment of persons, cases, or other units into treatment and control groups throughout the experiment.
4. Choose a design and methods of investigation that are appropriate both to the questions to be answered and to the available data.
5. Adopt a team approach between researchers and practitioners and keep working in close cooperation.
6. Put as much into your experiment as you want to get out of it.
7. Use an experiment to inform policy, not to make policy.
8. Understand and confront the political risks an experiment may involve.
9. Insofar as possible, see that the experiment is replicated in a variety of settings before encouraging widespread adoption of experimentally successful treatments.

Conclude with a discussion of if you feel that the criminal justice program policy being evaluated is worthy of continuing as a program. Include three supporting points to support your position.