Part VI: Research, Evaluation, and Knowledge Dissemination

Overview

A pervasive theme throughout the symposium and across all working groups was the need to develop and disseminate knowledge on the nature of alcohol abuse and crime and on effective policy and program responses. The beginning of this part of the report identifies recurrent, research related themes from across all four working groups. The remainder of this part highlights specific research needs and topics that arose within each working group.

Developing Knowledge on "What Works"

Each of the four groups identified as a priority the development of sound evaluation research on current interventions to create a more complete understanding of the approaches and programs which are most effective in addressing alcohol-related crime problems in diverse cultural settings.

Disseminating Existing Information on "What Works"

Each of the four groups asserted that existing research knowledge is not easily available or accessible to those who develop policy and programs to address these issues--particularly at the state and local level. There is a strong desire to understand "what works" with respect to domestic violence, offender interventions, underage alcohol use, and community initiatives. The four groups recommended that OJP:

• Promote and market research about what works and about best practices through the Internet, the use of video formats, and more extensive publications;
• Translate the results of research into "user-friendly" formats in addition to their publication in the research literature; and
• Develop a clearing house specifically on alcoholic beverage control issues.

Collaboration between Researchers and Practitioners

A third area of agreement that emerged across the groups was the need for researchers and practitioners to form partnerships. As researchers begin to understand more clearly the context of interventions, the needs that practitioners have for information, and the goals of interventions, their research efforts will become more targeted to practitioner needs and, hopefully, more useful to practitioners. Similarly, as practitioners communicate more directly with researchers, they will be able to provide better information for research purposes and will benefit from rigorous thinking about defining program outcomes.

All four groups recommended that OJP:

• Support research and evaluation that includes the collaboration between the researchers and practitioners as part of its design;
• Support research that specifically involves communities who are implementing the interventions to be studied or evaluated; and
• Collaborate with other federal agencies who fund research on different aspects of alcohol abuse and crime should, themselves, collaborate to develop a better understanding of this complex problem.

Research within Different Cultural Contexts

All of the groups identified knowledge gaps in their particular areas and recommended specific areas that need further investigation. Topics varied widely across all four groups, every one of the groups identified the need for knowledge development about alcohol-related crime within specific cultural contexts. Collectively, the four groups strongly conveyed the sense that whatever the limits of our existing knowledge about alcohol-related crime in the majority culture, they pale in comparison with our lack of knowledge about alcohol-related crime within Native American, Native American, and Hispanic cultures. In order to address these research needs, the four groups recommended that OJP:

• Conduct ethnographic and qualitative research to understand the variable impact which alcohol abuse and crime has in certain cultural contexts;
• Develop better research tools and methods to reach under-represented, immigrant, and other populations who are not being reached by current research methods;
• Pursue research specifically designed to assess the impact of alcohol policy on violence in communities generally, but especially within communities in Indian Country; and
• Develop research programs that examine the relationship of community contexts (i.e., racism, cultural discrimination, poverty, political and personal powerlessness) to alcohol-related crimes.

Research Methods

Participants at the symposium articulated a number of recommendations about research strategy and methods. Members of the working group of effective interventions for offender populations encouraged:

• The use of experimental designs; and

• The support of long-term studies to measure the impact of treatment among offender populations.

Research Recommendations from the Working Group on the Role of Alcohol in Domestic Violence and Its Implications for Criminal Justice Interventions

Participants emphasized that basic research is needed regarding the complex relationship between alcohol abuse and domestic violence, as well as the impact which both alcohol treatment and batterers interventions--alone and in combination--have upon victim safety. The positive impact of treatment on violent crime in general appears to be fairly well established through existing research. It is not clear, however, whether this research is generalizable to intimate violence.

This particular recommendation is critical because of the anecdotal information which suggests that during the early stages of alcohol treatment for domestic violence offenders the risk of violence (physical and non-physical) and coercion may actually increase. This has obvious implications for victim safety.

Yet another dimension of this complex set of issues, is the degree to which alcohol treatment for the victims of domestic violence may actually increase their risk of re-victimization. Many chemically dependent victims leave substance abuse treatment in response to the increased danger or are otherwise unable to comply with treatment demands because of the obstacles constructed by their partners.

Other recommended research topics included:

• The epidemiology of violence against women in all forms through the life span;
• Pre-intervention and root problems as a pre-requisite to designing interventions;
• Effective assessment strategies;

• Domestic violence and substance abuse developmental issues relating to young women and teens;
• Differences and similarities between illicit drug use and domestic violence, and alcohol use and domestic violence;

• The impact of community involvement in domestic violence and alcohol intervention programs--both through process and outcome evaluations;
• The impact of managed care on services for both domestic violence and alcohol abuse; and

• Prevention oriented research on the inter-generational nature of domestic violence and alcohol.

Research Recommendations from the Working Group on Effective Offender Interventions

Perhaps the most significant outcome of the discussion on offender interventions was a recognition of a lack of consensus about what constitutes acceptable treatment standards for this population. Specific recommendations for research topics which the group felt should be pursued in this area are:

• Scientifically-based assessment tools for alcohol abuse screening, risk assessment related to alcohol abuse, and diagnosis;
• Effective treatment and interventions, both short and long term, for drunk drivers;
• The effects of combining treatment and sanctions when intervening with offenders; and

• Alcohol abuse and crime in proportion to its importance as a drug of abuse--which is significant, and greater than many drugs of abuse which we research extensively.

Research Recommendations from the Working Group on the Underage Use of Alcohol

The participants in this group asserted that OJP should support and promote research on:

• The impacts of all policies and initiatives developed and implemented at the state or local level to address the underage use of alcohol and its negative consequences (in the form of empirical evaluations);
• The use of the empirical evaluations to inform policy development;
• The effects of alcohol advertising on underage persons;
• Topics in both basic and applied studies over both the short and long term;
• The relationship between underage illicit drug use and the underage use of alcohol;
• The prevalence of alcohol-related victimization among youth;

• The determinants (including psychiatric comorbidity) of drinking patterns among youth;
• The effectiveness of all initiatives and policies on minority communities before broad implementation efforts occur;
• How alcohol problems lead to and develop from other social and psychological problems in underage persons;
• The forms of communication that influence the way that underage persons who use alcohol act; and

• Alcohol as a cause and correlate of delinquency.

Research Recommendations from the Working Group on Community-Based Responses and Initiatives

The participants in this group agreed that research and evaluation on alcohol abuse and crime should be vigorously pursued by the Office of Justice Programs. The group encouraged OJP to support and promote research which:

• Focuses on the evaluation of initiatives that involve community-based, collaborative approaches which link alcoholic beverage control agencies, law enforcement, community and neighborhood representatives, merchants, the hospitality industry, and others in crime prevention efforts;

• Identifies patterns of drinking that are most closely associated with crime and then work to effectively address that link;
• Focuses on communities that have already demonstrated some promise and that are being funded by OJP agencies;
• Focuses on the evaluation of initiatives in communities who have undertaken alcohol-related crime reduction strategies on their own, rather than ones created by outside intervention; and
• Focuses on cross-site evaluations of communities and on outcomes where possible.