The Role of Change Agents
As the move toward an evidence-based approach in criminology has gathered momentum over the past decade, increased attention has been paid to strategies that try to ensure that knowledge gained from the best evidence is actually used in practice. For the strategies to work, liaisons between basic research and practice are needed to make certain that research is being utilized to its maximum potential. These liaisons or change agents will provide abundant benefits to the task force and I hope to provide you with a comprehensive list of talented change agents that can be of use on our advisory board.
Having a change agent between basic research and practice offers a number of benefits. Engaging in research, the agent becomes familiar with the intervention programs and at times is generally engaged in intervention programs. This debunks the notion that researchers are “not in touch with what is truly going on in the field,” type rhetoric. Change agents successfully bridge the gap between research and practice by using the theoretical underpinnings of the research to guide intervention programs. Rather than relying on feel-good anecdotes, evidence about what works becomes embedded in policies, guidelines, and practice tools, which subsequently produces much more sound results.
Using research and engaging in practice, agents can also enhance the utility of research by making the evidence more usable by improving the capacity of management and policy decision makers to use it. One such example is they develop translation tools to improve communication between research and practice. Research is an exhaustive process: there are lots words, numbers, graphs, and models, but change agents can dissect what is in...
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In today’s society, many people commit crimes and illegal behavior is nothing new. Society knows that there are criminals and they have criminal intentions. The question today is not if people are going to commit crimes, it is finding the most effective method to help those criminals reenter society as productive citizens, and preventing new people from becoming criminals. Department of corrections around the nation have implemented a program that identifies the most effective method. The “what works” movement outlines four general principles that are implemented in the rehabilitation of criminals; and, these principles are risk principle, criminogenic need principle, treatment principle, and fidelity principle.
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The quest for knowledge and understanding drives individuals to explore the unknown and live out the thoughts that once consumed their minds. Experience and formed opinions are the end results of these journeys; assumptions are either reinforced or shattered, but either way the truth is a little bit closer than before. Dark and gray areas consume the field of criminal justice; only personal experience can serve as a light. Participating in the internship program offered through the College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University has become that light. Throughout this semester the knowledge acquired from SHSU criminal justice classes combined with the experiences gained from the Dallas County Adult Probation Department has produced an exceptional understanding of fact and theory pertaining to the field of criminal justice. Courses such as Criminology 262 and the Fundamentals of Criminal Law 264 contributed to the personal triumph gained from involvement in the internship program and allowed individual strengths and weaknesses to ...
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To support reintegration, correctional workers are to serve as advocates for offenders in dealing with government agencies assisting with employment counseling services, medical treatment, and financial assistance. They argued that corrections focal point should be increasing opportunities for the offenders, to become law abiding citizens and on providing psychological treatment. This model of corrections advocates avoiding imprisonment if possible for the offender and also in favor of probation, therefore offenders can obtain an education and vocational training that would help their adjustment in the community. In the community model corrections advocated for inmates incarcerated to spend very limited time in prison before been granted parole.
The increased growth of probationers has placed a strain on the workload of probation officers throughout time creating a less personal approach to community corrections (Still et. al., 2016). A revamping, restructuring, as well as revision of the revenue allotted to community corrections, is required to allow for an increased success rate of probation. As noted earlier in my response, the majority of offenders within the United States are assigned to community corrections shifting away from incarceration. This shift is setting the stage for an opportunity to revise the way probation and parole are handled to allow for an increased success rate of reform through the use of proven effective rehabilitation strategies similar to those used by John Augustus.
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The Ottawa Model of Research Use (OMRU) offers a “comprehensive, interdisciplinary framework of elements that affect the process of health-care knowledge transfer, and is derived from theories of change, from the literature, and from a process of reflection” (Graham & Logan, 2004, p. 93). It promotes research use, and could be used by policymakers and researchers (Logan & Graham, 1998). The OMRU is an example of a planned change theory, which helps “administrators control factors that will influence the likelihood of changes occurring at the organizational level and how these changes occur” (Graham & Logan, 2004, p. 2).
In my undergraduate studies, I endeavored to further my knowledge and understanding up to the more advanced levels and achieved an outstanding result. As I started my CJ studies in the Spring of 2014, I became preoccupied by the systematic trainings that I received in the criminological theories, crime correction, and the relevant laws. I was keen to study for this particular program because I understood how this knowledge can be utilized to reduce and prevent crime to benefit the lower classes of different communities. These experiences helped me to build up a solid foundation to carry out higher-level research in the
In the United States there are approximately 400,000 correctional officers serving in penitentiaries and institutional corrective facilities. As a systematic power position, the role of the correctional officer is an apparatus embodying control within county jails, state prisons, federal and private prisons. This mechanism of law enforcement has acquired procedures, policies, duties and tasks in order for the correctional facility to operate efficiently. Not only do correctional officers serve as a key functional component in the prison complex, they serve the inmates to further their rehabilitation and punishment when and if needed. The responsibilities under the title of correctional officer include maintaining a safe and secure environment
Criminology, as defined by the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Criminology, is the scientific study of the causes of crime, prevention of criminal behavior and the functioning of criminal justice institutions. Ian Hay, a distinguished criminologist from the Flinders University of South Australia states that many few criminologist have written about topics regarding research ethics (Mark Israel I. H., 2005). Several, however, have orally shared their research in ethics and research committees. Furthermore, this paper will outline ethical issues confronted by criminologist. These ethical issues include, for example, confidentiality, informed consent, as well as the method and integrity of the research being conducted.