U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance. Assessing the Effectiveness of Criminal Justice
Programs,
Assessment and Evaluation Handbook Series No. 1. Washington, DC; 1994. pp. 1-2.
I. Underlying Premise of Assessment and Evaluation
The need to focus on innovative programs which are successfully contributing to the State strategies emphasizing drug control, violent crime and criminal justice system improvement is well recognized. The study of individual programs, located across the country, will help identify "what works," and what may be transferable to other locations. These studies begin with in-depth analysis of each program likely to produce useful results.
The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) assesses the effectiveness of substance abuse prevention programs for the purpose of finding out how well they have been implemented and to compare the extent to which the activities funded have achieved the program's goals. Such assessments are designed to provide administrators and policy makers with an improved understanding of whether specific activities accomplish their desired results of enhancing the effectiveness of the stated program strategies.
| Program evaluation is defined as follows: A systematic assessment of the results or outcomes of program efforts to measure actual outcomes against the intended outcomes of the program; to discover achievement and results; to discover deviations from planned achievements; to judge the worth of the program; to identify unintended consequences; and to recommend expansion, contraction, elimination, or modification of the program. |
It is obvious from the preceding definition that program evaluation is an invaluable aid in planning, developing, and managing programs. To be effective, however, program evaluation efforts must be placed within the broader context of program management. A flexible capacity for internal self-evaluation is fundamental to the management and ongoing improvement of programs.
The purpose of the process evaluation is to provide the criminal justice community with technical information that can assist them in developing and implementing similar programs. Special attention is given to identifying the lessons learned at the various sites and the guidance they can provide to other jurisdictions regarding organization and development of program activities and to the implementation of program elements which are useful in addressing particular kinds of problems relating to drug abuse and crime control. Notably, performing process evaluations establishes the foundation for more intensive impact evaluations.
The purpose of the impact evaluation is to provide management information needed by Federal, State and local officials and community leaders involved in policy and programming decisions which clearly confirms that specific programs and/or activities do work, or do not work. The impacts observed in the demonstration projects are distilled to provide assessment of the impact to the program strategies.
Evaluation of program performance should be done on a continuing basis and should provide an overall framework for all participants involved with the program to benefit through the utilization of evaluation findings and recommendations.