Example Of Criminal Law Essay

Criminal Justice Program Proposal

Criminal Justice Program Proposal

Evaluation Type

Basing on the objectives and the purpose of the project of developing Juvenile delinquents eradication program, the project will encompass various evaluation types. These evaluation types will vary and will be dependent on the specifications, goals and time of the aspects being evaluated. These evaluation types for the project will include formative evaluation, summative evaluation, goals-based evaluation and goals-free evaluation. Each of these four types of evaluation for the project will be used at different times and occasions in the course of the project.
First, formative evaluation will take place in the lead-up activities to the project as well as in the course of the project to improve the design of the project as it continues being implemented. That is; the formative evaluation will allow for continual improvement in the project, including aspects such as identifying the probable factors likely to affect the project or the challenges likely to face the project. In addition, the formative evaluation will lend itself to the qualitative inquiry methods (Burstein, Freeman, & Rossi, 2005). Second, the project will encompass the use of summative evaluation. This evaluation type will take place during and after the implementation of the project and will involve the association of more quantitative and objective methods. This type of evaluation will be significant in the assessment of whether the project will have met its goals, the leanings, and improvement methods, and whether there were any instances of unintended consequences in the project.
The goals-based evaluation will involve the measuring of whether the predetermined targets of the project have been met effectively. This type of evaluation will be use mainly to measure the SMART targets of the Juvenile delinquents eradication program. Lastly, the project will encompass the use of a fourth evaluation type; the goals-free evaluation. This evaluation type will involve the evaluation of the emergence and the unintended consequences of the project by analyzing the actual effects without the pre-emption of what they may be. This evaluation will focus on the change process within the environment of the Juvenile delinquents.

Information System Capabilities of Systems of Gathering Evaluation Data

The systems of gathering the evaluation data will have various technical capabilities that will promote the dissemination of crucial information in the course of the project. These capabilities will also provide a desirable level of visibility throughout the course of the project. First, the systems will have an application development that will comprise of distributed systems, service-oriented and web-based architectures (Burstein, Freeman, & Rossi, 2005). These capabilities will allow for the collection and dissemination of information through modern platforms of database, tools and programming languages to promote feasibility and effective flow of information in the course of the project.
The systems will also have data integration capabilities. These data integration capabilities will allow for analytical application of information through integration, aggregation and transformation of evaluation data from multiple sources. The combination of all information from various sources will allow for the evaluation of various forms of data concerning the issue of juvenile delinquents. Lastly, the systems will have digital data archiving capabilities that will enable the navigation of issues and information surrounding long-term preservation of the digital assets, retaining the context through the management of evaluation metadata and ensuring compliance with the retention mandates.

Qualitative and Quantitative Methods of Evaluating Program Data

The project will encompass the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data. As such, there will be qualitative and quantitative methods of evaluating the program data. The evaluation of the program data will be diverse methodologically. The methods of evaluation will vary between the quantitative and qualitative approaches. For the quantitative, the evaluation will encompass descriptive analysis or evaluation. This type of data evaluation will be significant because it will assist in the description of raw data. Some of the methods of descriptive analysis that will be employed include numerical counts or the frequencies, the percentages, the measures of central tendency, including the median, mode and median, and the measures of variability, including the range, the variance and the standard deviation (Burstein, Freeman, & Rossi, 2005). These aspects will enable the creation of ranks and through working with the available data. The methods of evaluating the quantitative program data will be based on the priorities of which one of them most clearly assists in summarizing the program data that is relative to the purpose of the evaluation.
For the qualitative, evaluation of the data will encompass various steps. First, there will be knowing of the program data. This step will involve re-reading the content of the qualitative data. This step will allow for understanding the quality of the data and identifying any limitations before proceeding. The second step will involve focusing the evaluation. Focusing on the program data will involve focusing on time, period, question or topic to explore the connections and relationships of the data. The third step will be categorizing the information or data through identifying the patterns or themes and organizing them in into different coherent categories. The last step will be the interpretation of the program data by bringing it all together.

Responsibilities for Data Collection, Storage, and Analysis

After the decision on the qualitative and quantitative techniques to be adopted, it is important to designate the responsibilities of data collection, analysis, and storage among the relevant officers. The Juvenile Justice Detention Officer will bear the responsibility for gathering the data. These officers oversee and guard the detainees after the confirmation of their charges and passing of judgment of by the courts (Burstein, Freeman, & Rossi, 2005). In addition, these officers also maintain order within the detention facilities by ensuring that the detained youth to observe the behaviors required of them every day. The nature of their duties allows them to be in a better position to interact with both detainees and respondents in collection of data. For this reason, they can pose the most relevant questions to both parties and make the study more comprehensive, detailed, and relevant.
On the contrary, the Juvenile Correctional Officer and the systems administrator will handle the task of data storage. After every session of data collection, they will examine the recorded data and select criteria for storing the data. For instance, they can group all the similar responses together. They should also separate the relevant data from data that may count as bad votes. Such data is often usable in showing the number of people who do not have adequate information about particular subjects. Lastly, the correctional facility can hire the services of statisticians from various departments such as government planning for data analysis. They will analyze the data and make accurate conclusions based on the stored data that they will access.

Mechanisms of Providing Feedback to Staff, Clients, and Stakeholders

Feedback refers to information regarding a certain product, task, or performance utilized as a way of improving or creating change. Feedback is relevant and important in many organizations as it shows the level of success of a particular task that requires the application of various resources. When giving feedback about the criminal justice program developed, there are several mechanisms used to make the feedback constructive and valuable. The first mechanism of providing the feedback is focusing on the description of variables rather than judgment. Describing will focus on the events that happened, how they did and the persons involved in those events. If the feedback provided focuses on judgment, then it will limit the scope of the responses to the elements deemed right or wrong (McConnell & Kerbs, 2008). In addition, judgment makes the feedback biased and based on the opinion of the person providing it. Using descriptive and evaluative language helps to reduce the tendency of being defensive by the people to whom the feedback regards.
Secondly, focusing on observations made rather than the expected inference of the task or program. Observations refer to the visible elements or the characteristics the heard about by the person collecting the data. On the contrary, inferences refer to the interpretations and assumptions made by the person giving the feedback. The feedback should focus on the experiences and actual actions of the respondents. It should not focus on the things that the person is giving feedback deems the respondents should have done.
Third, it is also important to give attention to the behavior instead of the person who has the behavior. The importance of feedback is to show that there is a possibility of changing the trends within the society or a particular institution. For this reason, evaluating the behavior is important because it can provide the methods that can be used to change and lead to the elements desired. For instance, if most of the juveniles are disobedient to the correctional officers, then the feedback should focus on their acts of disobedience rather that the people are perpetrating them (McConnell & Kerbs, 2008).
Most importantly, the feedback should give a balance of the positive, and negative aspects of the judicial program developed. As much as many people prefer to focus on the positive aspects of the program, the negative elements show the weaknesses of the program. They will help to better the program when they are addressed. For instance, the program may not have adequate support and funding from the relevant authorities. Pointing out such a weakness will improve the quality of resource allocation in the succeeding periods, which will also improve the functionality of the program.

Ways of Assessing the Relevance of the Stakeholder Feedback

First, the stakeholders will react to the feedback they receive regarding the program by implementing the suggested changes. If they change the program significantly, then it is an indication that the objectives of the program are not being achieved optimally. Their response may be aggressive or conservative. If they respond aggressively, the stakeholders will implement many changes to suit the objectives of the program. On the other hand, the stakeholders may make minimal and insignificant changes (McConnell & Kerbs, 2008). Often it points out that the objectives of the program are being achieved. For this reason, the response of the stakeholders often counts in the evaluation of the relevance of the feedback provided to them. They may request particular aspects of the program to be included in the feedback in areas where they feel that it is not adequate.

References

Burstein, L., Freeman, H. E., & Rossi, P. H. (2005). Collecting evaluation data: Problems and solutions. Beverly Hills, CA: Saga Publications.
McConnell, W. A., & Kerbs, J. J. (2008). Providing Feedback in Research With Human Subjects. Professional Psychology-research and Practice. doi:10.1037/0735-7028.24.3.266