bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Using Evidence-Based Practices to Improve Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts
Authors: Sullivan Christopher J. , Gonçalves Vitor , McKenna Nicole 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Juvenile drug treatment courts (JDTCs) are a frequent response to justice-involved youth who engage in substance use. Despite the frequent implementation of JDTCs since the 1990s, the evidence base for their effectiveness and courts’ adherence to the underlying JDTC theory of change is limited. This chapter offers an overview of the underlying foundation of these interventions and identifies and describes their key components and processes. It then assesses relevant evaluation studies in this area to reach some conclusions about current knowledge regarding JDTCs. Based on that review of key evidence to date, we then offer suggestions on how knowledge about JDTCs may be improved to facilitate better practice. The chapter concludes with some summary points about the state of the JDTC evidence base and thoughts for future consideration.
Evidence-Oriented Youth Justice
Authors: Butts Jeffrey A. , Roman John K. , Pugliese Katheryne 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
The public expects youth justice agencies to help young people whenever possible, but their primary job is to protect communities from crime. When crime rates rise or notorious crimes attract the attention of policymakers and news media, youth justice officials defend themselves by citing their adherence to evidence-based practices. The term “evidence-based” is rarely defined and may even be misused as a marketing slogan. Building interventions with rigorous evidence is an important and valuable goal for youth justice, but it must be an ongoing process. Adhering rigidly to the existing evidence base could hinder effective policy if it inhibits innovation and suppresses the discovery of new interventions. Instead of defensively claiming to be evidence-based, youth justice officials should be evidence-oriented. Justice systems are evidence-oriented when they use credible evaluation findings to (1) identify already effective programs and (2) develop innovative and promising approaches to be tested by future evaluations.
Evidence-Based Policing
Authors: Lum Cynthia , Koper Christopher S. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Evidence-based policing is an approach to police practice that incorporates scientific processes, analyses, and research to guide decision-making and operations. Thus, evidence-based policing includes not only efforts to generate and improve the supply, demand for, and use of scientific knowledge in policing, but also the processes and techniques that link the supply of research with its implementation. These efforts include translating that knowledge into digestible and usable forms, building receptivity toward science within police agencies and communities, and institutionalizing knowledge and scientific processes into police practices and decision-making. The chapter defines evidence-based policing and contrasts it with the standard model of policing and other alternatives. It then discusses activities to achieve translation, receptivity, and institutionalization of research outputs and processes into law enforcement practices.
Incarceration-Based Drug Treatment
Authors: Mitchell Ojmarrh 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Individuals held in prisons and jails are much more likely than the general population to have a drug use disorder. Drug-involved inmates often also face mental health disorders and homelessness. These co-occurring problems reinforce one another and complicate treating drug use disorders, as effective solutions to drug problems may require multimodal treatments to address the host of challenges facing this population. Given that a large proportion of drug-involved individuals are incarcerated at some point in time, correctional institutions have a plum opportunity to intervene in the cycle of uncontrolled drug use, drug-related crime, and reincarceration. This chapter discusses these issues and reviews research assessing the effectiveness of common incarceration-based drug treatment programs.
Making Prisoner Re-entry Evidence-Based
Authors: Kosc Helen , Kirk David S. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Re-entry presents formerly incarcerated individuals with a multitude of triggering risk factors and challenges that make reintegration difficult. The role of re-entry policies and practices is to recognize and moderate the impact of those stressors to encourage successful community reintegration. While government agencies and nonprofit organizations offer a number of programs intended to support and improve prisoner re-entry outcomes, relatively few have been rigorously evaluated for their effects, and those that have sometimes have harmful unintended consequences for their participants. For this reason, in this chapter, we advocate for more evidence-based evaluations of current re-entry support as well as the strict use of evidence when designing future policy and programming.
Early Prevention as an Alternative to Imprisonment
Authors: Welsh Brandon C. , Paterson Heather , Farrington David P. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
This chapter examines the extent to which early prevention provides economic returns to society and whether the returns make it a more worthwhile policy alternative to imprisonment. To address this question the authors reviewed (a) the latest benefit-cost analyses of early prevention programs, (b) the first generation of studies that have examined the economics of early prevention compared to imprisonment, including Washington State’s ongoing comparative benefit-cost model, and (c) a wide range of other economic studies. Based on the highest-quality research evidence, they found clear and substantial support for policy options that emphasize early prevention and limit the use of imprisonment. Importantly, the economic returns of early prevention compared to imprisonment are sizable, wide-ranging (i.e., cascading over multiple domains), and long-lasting, with some studies showing economic benefits accruing well into midlife. Implications for policy are discussed.
Evaluating Research and Assessing Research Evidence
Authors: Welsh Brandon C. , Mears Daniel P. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
For crime or justice policy to be evidence-based, it must be grounded in scientific evidence. What goes into establishing credible evidence, however, can be complicated. It is nonetheless critical that criminal justice stakeholders and other consumers of research, and not just researchers, understand the complexity so that they can make more informed judgments about policy and practice. This chapter introduces readers to general considerations that go into evaluating specific research studies and assessing bodies of research. In so doing, it draws attention to critical dimensions, such as internal validity and external validity, and types of policy-relevant questions—beyond those solely focused on “what works”—that research can answer.
Systems of Change
Authors: Fagan Abigail A. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Despite the current emphasis on evidence-based crime control in the United States and the existence of many evidence-based interventions (EBIs) demonstrated to prevent crime, many communities continue to utilize untested and/or ineffective crime prevention strategies. This chapter describes a potential solution to this problem: the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system. CTC was intentionally designed to increase the use of EBIs by community agencies to prevent youth substance use, delinquency, and violence. It provides community coalitions with a structured process, training, and consultation to improve their knowledge, adoption, and high-quality implementation of EBIs. As described in this chapter, CTC is itself evidence-based, having been demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial and multiple quasi-experimental evaluations to increase the use of EBIs and reduce youth problem behaviors. This evidence suggests that, if widely implemented across the United States as a structured mechanism for installing EBIs in communities, CTC has the potential to significantly reduce rates of crime.
Reducing School Crime and Student Misbehavior
Authors: Payne Allison Ann 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Schools should be spaces safe from crime and victimization, yet this is regrettably not the case. Despite declines in serious violent crime and overall school crime during the past three decades, crime and disorder in schools are still a cause for concern. In response, schools have increasingly implemented restrictive security and punitive disciplinary measures that, unfortunately, do more harm than good. By contrast, evidence-based interventions focused on improving a school’s climate and building students’ cognitive, social, and emotional skills have been shown to be effective in reducing school crime and student misbehavior. This chapter reviews schools’ use of strict security and harsh discipline, including the negative consequences therein, and presents an evidence-based alternative: strategies aimed at improving school- and student-level risk factors for crime and deviance. Recommendations for schools and research are discussed.
Evidence-Based Strategies for Preventing Urban Youth Violence
Authors: Ross Katherine M. , Walsh Colleen S. , Angulo Angela G. , Leslie Carine E. , Tolan Patrick H. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Youth violence continues to be a national public health concern. Violence in its many forms (e.g., aggression, bullying, delinquency, gun crimes) has profound and long-term effects on individuals (e.g., injury, death, mental health issues, more violent behavior, criminal record) and communities (e.g., loss of community members, unsafe conditions, community trauma, victim blaming, isolation from resources). While the field of violence prevention is not new and there is a body of evidence that identifies risk and protective factors of youth violence as optimal targets for programs and practices, less is known about violence prevention specifically for contexts that experience the most impact: low-resource urban communities. This chapter reviews what is known about evidence-based youth violence prevention strategies and what we still need to learn specifically for urban communities experiencing high levels of youth violence. We end with recommendations for future research, practice, and policy, with a call for more context specific approaches.
A Place Management Approach to Promote Evidence-Based Crime Prevention
Authors: Herold Tamara D. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Crime is highly concentrated among people and places. It is critical that police and other policymakers understand the causal mechanisms responsible for this phenomenon, so that scarce resources will be allocated to the prevention strategies most likely to reduce crime. This chapter seeks to explain these mechanisms and promote more place-focused, evidence-based crime prevention. It summarizes a large body of evidence showing that a few places generate most crime, and that place management practices can account for these unequal crime distributions. Drawing from this literature, a theory to explain persistent violent hot spots is offered. This theory uses a place typology known as CS4 to explain the role and significance of less visible crime-involved places. The theory explains how four place types create larger place networks that underlie persistent hot spots. A strategy, Place Network Investigations, designed to disrupt place networks and achieve long-term crime reductions by improving place management, is presented. This strategy and its associated theory suggest new directions for crime prevention research and practice.
Social Inequality and Evidence-Based Policy
Authors: Rodriguez Nancy 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Addressing the role of social inequality in society has been revealed and regarded as a national priority. Social inequality has a complex relationship with crime and the criminal justice system. Despite an overwhelming agreement on the important role that social inequality plays in crime and criminal justice outcomes, there are no evidence-based policies or practices designed to reduce social inequality among justice-involved individuals. Nonetheless, in the absence of massive social policy change, there are policies and practices that can reduce inequality and address the needs of marginalized groups in the justice systems. This chapter highlights several of these criminal justice strategies, as well as a few outside of the justice system that could reduce social inequality. It also discusses the important role that data metrics on subgroups play in addressing social inequality and the nature of research collaborations and accessibility in producing and translating scientific work.
Mass Evidence-Based Policy as an Alternative to Mass Incarceration
Authors: Mears Daniel P. , Cochran Joshua C. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Abstract
In this chapter, the authors argue for an investment in evidence-based policy (EBP) through the prioritization of research, including creating the infrastructure necessary to generate credible evidence and the incorporation of the evaluation hierarchy into policy development, implementation, and assessment. In advancing this argument, they highlight the profound disconnect between mass incarceration and policymaker calls for EBP. They highlight, too, problems that stem from the disjuncture and what the contemporary criminal justice landscape could have been with investment in policy grounded in strong science. The assessment leads them to conclude that a fundamental shift in political priorities and research infrastructure is needed to create mass EBP. This shift entails institutionalizing and increasing funding for research at multiple governmental levels and creating agency requirements to undertake need, theory, implementation, impact, and efficiency evaluations of existing and proposed policy. Finally, they argue that mass EBP is a realistic possibility and, to reduce crime and increase justice, a necessity.
“Big Data” and Evidence-Based Policy and Practice
Authors: O’Brien Daniel T. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Narratives around “big data” are heavy on promises or critiques but light on the specifics of how they enable new directions in data-driven research, policy, and practice. This chapter offers a remedy by arguing that we should focus not on the size of big data but on their “naturally occurring” origins, arising from nonresearch processes and systems. This creates the paired advantages and challenges of unprecedented precision but uncertain validity, flexibility but lack of guidance for measurement, and powerful but potentially invasive variety of information. The chapter includes six case studies from the study and management of crime in communities, illustrating each of these aspects of naturally occurring data. It concludes with an additional opportunity created by naturally occurring data: the weaknesses of the data can be leveraged to understand how a given policy or program works and to further improve it, as captured in two final case studies.
Imposed Use
Authors: Zane Steven N. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Central to the evidence-based paradigm is the explicit goal to increase the influence of scientific research on public policy. One of the central issues regarding evidence-based policy is how policymakers will actually use the best evidence to inform their decision-making. The research utilization literature delineates a number of ways that evaluation research can exert an influence on policy decisions, including conceptual, instrumental, and political. Limitations of these routes of research influence on policy, along with a growing interest in the evidence-based paradigm, have given rise to the term “imposed use,” first coined by Carol Weiss. This chapter describes the promise and limitations of imposed use for advancing evidence-based crime and justice policy.
The Eurogang Definition
Authors: Weerman Frank M. , Decker Scott H. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
The Eurogang definition of gangs and troublesome youth groups is now regarded as almost a standard, used by many gang researchers around the world. However, the road to reaching consensus about this definition has been a long and thorny path, and methodological debate and disputes about its application still remains. This chapter aims to provide an overview of the context in which the definition evolved, the history of its development, the rationale behind its basic elements, studies that were conducted to scrutinize the usefulness of the definition, and debates that evolved around the definition and its applicability in the current age. The chapter is based not only on various publications of the Eurogang network and other researchers, but also on recollected memories from various meetings of the Eurogang network, as well as a recent interview with Malcolm Klein, famous gang researcher and initiator of the Eurogang project.
Masculinities and Respect in the Group Context of Gangs
Authors: Hughes Lorine A. , Broidy Lisa M. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
This chapter delineates the history and significance of masculinities within the gang literature. Following the second women’s movement, crime and violence came to be understood as means by which male and female offenders, including gang members, accomplish gender. While criminological debates over the nature and behavioral effects of feminine gender identities remain unresolved, masculinities frequently are implicated in explanations of gang crime and violence, particularly as related to street codes, street culture, and street socialization. This body of work conceptualizes masculinity as a resource for obtaining respect and shows how it is accomplished through violence and other public displays of toughness. Missing from this literature, which focuses primarily on individual action and macro-level considerations, is attention to complementary micro-level group dynamics in which enactments of masculinity unfold. After discussing the role of group structure and process in transforming performances of masculinity, including violence, into contextual resources for earning and maintaining respect, the chapter concludes with recommendations for future research.
Indigenous Gangs and Gang Research
Authors: Freng Adrienne , St. Clair Hannah 
Published: January 2024

AbstractIndigenous gangs in the United States and Canada share similar histories and characteristics. It is often proposed that gangs in these communities result from the ongoing discrimination and marginalization of these groups from mainstream society. The information available regarding these groups indicates many similarities with gangs in general. While general gang prevention and intervention programs have been suggested, many also argue that culturally specific programming is needed to eradicate these groups from Indigenous communities. However, more evaluation and research are required to fully assess the situation among this population. A lack of recent comprehensive examinations prevents us from fully understanding the scope and nature of gangs and thus how to best address these groups for Native communities. To fully understand the impact of gangs on Indigenous populations, more research is needed.
Re-Examining the Literature on Social Media and Gangs
Authors: Elsaesser Caitlin , Patton Desmond 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Social media now shapes nearly every dimension of adolescents’ lives, including the experience of conflict. In the last decade, scholars with expertise in gangs and community violence have documented important trends in how social media shapes gang activity, including gun violence. Concurrently, a focus on individual-level behaviors and even group processes on social media obscure the root causes that create the conditions for community violence—in other words, the structural violence targeted at Black and Latinx communities that have created concentrated poverty. Critical race theory is a useful framework that can support researchers in centering anti-racism to determine promising directions for the research in this area. This chapter brings insights from critical race theory to scholarship on social media use and gang-labeled individuals, including the debate about the causal role of social media and gun violence. Throughout, it attends to implications for addressing racism, highlighting examples of research that integrates critical race theory, social media, and gang-labeled individuals. The chapter underscores the powerful potential researchers have to shift energy from focusing on individual-level risk behaviors and to addressing the conditions, systems, and structures that allow violence to occur.
Funding Gang Research to Advance Policy and Practice
Authors: Wyrick Phelan A. , Kelley Barbara Tatem , Carlton Mary Poulin 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
Funders play a critical role in supporting research that advances scientific knowledge on gangs and the delinquent and criminal behaviors of those involved in gangs. Gang research funding and the knowledge it produces are essential to the development of effective programs, practices, and policies to reduce gang activity and promote public safety. This chapter examines gang research and evaluation funding by the US Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP). With consideration of the needs and priorities of practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders, the OJP has mobilized a range of funding strategies to produce groundbreaking and seminal research findings over more than three decades, which have transformed our understanding of gangs and how to respond to them.
The National Youth Gang Survey
Authors: Cahill Meagan , Howell James C. , Egley Arlen 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
From 1996 to 2012, the National Youth Gang Survey (NYGS), funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, was conducted annually. The survey provided insight into gang trends in the United States, and researchers demonstrated its utility for studies on gang-related topics. Yet at the time of this writing, the survey had not been fielded for a decade. In 2020, the National Institute of Justice committed funding to revive the NYGS. This chapter reviews the history of the survey over the 17 years it was fielded, reviews its contributions to the field of gang research, and discusses plans for the revived NYGS. An updated NYGS will provide the field with a current understanding of risk factors for joining gangs, gang member behavior, and how to address gang problems. Part of the work will include increasing NYGS’s use for policymaking, informing practice, and rigorous research.
Historical Gang Research Methods
Authors: Roth Mitchel P. 
Published: January 2024

Abstract
This chapter gives an overview of the many historical research methods that have been neglected by gang researchers. Contrary to the longstanding view that historical research is not “scientific,” this chapter demonstrates numerous types of historical research methods, ranging from using archival materials and other primary sources to oral history and newspapers. Often eschewed by social scientists, historical research methods can supplement other research methodologies and lead to a better understanding of gangs at all levels. Historical research is both qualitative and quantitative in scope. Social scientists seem to have neglected this form of research due in no small part to their misunderstanding of what actually constitutes historical data. This chapter will show the myriad forms in which data are available and offer suggestions for incorporating it into their research.