Explain the utility of variable analysis in assessing criminal justice organizational effectiveness
What will be an ideal response?
• In the assessment of organizational effectiveness, variable analysis refers to research designs that attempt to measure the attainment of some goal. Measurement of some outcome variable is often accompanied by investigation of the relationship between that outcome and independent variables.
• These studies, then, not only lead to general statements about effectiveness based on goal attainment but also provide information on what may contribute to effectiveness and thus on how effectiveness may be enhanced. For example, studies using crime rates as measures of police effectiveness may examine the relationship between that dependent variable and independent variables such as police expenditures, numbers of personnel, or intensity of investigation.
• There are several issues that are critical when assessing programs. Selecting the domain activity that is to be the assessment target, recognizing that organizations have multiple goals and that an assessment of effectiveness may not deal with all of them. Establishing validity by finding variables that actually provide measures of effectiveness in the selected domain of activity. Choosing measuring variables that are specific to the effectiveness problem being addressed. Determining whether the effectiveness problem being examined can be better evaluated by a process or structure measure than an outcome measure.
• Process measures examine activities assumed to cause effectiveness within organizations. Structure measures examine organizational features or participant characteristics that are presumed to have an impact on effectiveness.
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When Compstat was introduced crime rates were already going down in the entire country
Indicate whether the statement is true or false
The entrapment defense is based upon the belief that a person should not be convicted for a crime
A. in which government officials use violence. B. if government officials supply contraband that is readily obtainable. C. if government officials are also engaging in criminal enterprise. D. that the government instigates.
The first dominant paradigm in American criminology was Neoclassicism
a. TRUE b. FALSE
The fact that federal sentencing guidelines punish users of crack cocaine more harshly than possession of or trafficking in powder cocaine is used by Cole and Smith as an example of which of the following?
A. That unequal status in society can shape criminal justice policy B. That crack cocaine is more harmful to society than powder cocaine C. That few people are arrested for using powder cocaine D. That the effects of powder cocaine are not as strong as crack cocaine E. That federal sentencing guidelines are very sophisticated and accurate in their application of each offense