What Works in Evaluation Research

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8401375
AutoresRay Pawson (0000-0001-5892-9849), Nick Tilley
Año1994
Volumen34
Número3
Páginas291-306
Fecha de publicación1994-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe British Journal of Criminology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0007-0955 • E-ISSN: 1464-3529
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a048424
OpenAlexW1856244049
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas52
Referencias citadas3

British criminology has evolved its own distinctive division of labour. Theorists theorize, ethnographers empathize, statisticians soothsay, and so on. Unlike other areas of scholarship, this arrangement allows little time or gain for anyone bent on fundamental reflection on the nature of criminological research. Whilst (thankfully) this has had the effect of avoiding the unproductive epistemological brawls which characterize neighbouring disciplines, it can lead to a directionless research strategy founded on a taken-for-granted pragmatism. This paper examines the case of ‘evaluation research’ in the criminal justice area and attempts to inject some strategic thinking into this, the dourest, most matter-of-fact corner of the literature. On offer is a brief (and at this length) polemical case, arguing that the quasi-experimental paradigm has resulted in moribund evaluation, being itself a contributing factor to the ‘nothing works’ lament. Rescue is at hand in the form of a ‘scientific realist’ approach to evaluation

Art · Epistemology · Lament · Literature · Nothing · Political science · Pragmatism · Reflection (computer programming) · Scholarship · Sociology · Computer Science · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Critical Realism in Sociology · Law · Philosophy