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Textbook: Vito, G. F., & Higgins, G. E. (2015). Practical program evaluation for criminal justice. Waltham, MA: Elsevier. ISBN: 9781455777709.
**Christopher***
Formative, Process, outcome, economic, impact, summative, and goal based are 7 most common and most efficient forms of evaluations. Formative evaluation is used before a program or product has been implemented and used to explain the need or importance of its implementation. The positive of this evaluation is, it can allow for expansion and even remodeling of the program or product for improvement based on public opinion or access in the early stages. This type of evaluation does not lead to actual efficient or overall quality of this product (OBrien, 2013, Williams, 2020).
Process evaluation this form is used to access the program or service once it has been begun. This assessment is able to identify inefficiencies and enable product managers to streamline the services. This form of evaluation allows for products to strive by identifying errors early on. While this form of assessment does the job to keep the managers up to date with the current status of their product or service, it does little to offer foresight of where the service or product needs to be in the future. Outcome evaluation is used during the implementation phase of a product or service and used to examine real time results of how the product or service implementation is being used and whether the ideal efficiency mark is being met. This form of evaluation is very effective in determined to what degree of benefit is being provided by the product and or service. The downside to this form is that the product of service must be in place for a certain amount of time before an evaluation can begin (OBrien, 2013, Williams, 2020).
Economic evaluation looks at the benefit of the product and or service against the cost of running or having it in place. The benefit to this form is ensuring there is a cost-effective approach and the money from investors or backers is not being wasted. This form can assist managers in justifying their program cost. While examining cost versus outcome, this form does not evaluate the outcome the product or outcome can have on its customers. Impact evaluation is used to summarize an existing program or service and determine if it was successful from the start to end. The downfall to this form of assessment is it is done at the end of the program and does little to help adjust and counter negative aspects of the program during its lifetime. The positive aspects of this program is it can assist to develop or implement a second form or 2nd phase of the service or product based on positive results (OBrien, 2013, Williams, 2020).
Summative evaluation is another form of evaluation done at the end of the programs life to determine if benefits were provided to its customers on an efficient and thorough basis. This form can assist in proving there was a positive impact and justify the original purpose of the program. The downside is the lack of future insight the program could have in an advanced form. Goals-based evaluation is based on intervals or nearing the end of the product or service to determine if the set goals were met or are on track to be met. This form does well to have insight on progress of goals set, but does not provide data or solutions on how to further achieve the goals if they are not to be met (OBrien, 2013, Williams, 2020).
RCTs or randomized controlled trials or randomized impact evaluations are a form of assessments or evaluations that uses access based off randomization to examine programs with the intention of limiting bias in the evaluation and assessing the actual impact that program is capable of having. The function of the RCT is to randomize the recipients of the program into treatment groups and control groups, those who receive the product or service and those who do not. Then there is a comparison of the two groups to display the impact the product or service is having (OBrien, 2013, Williams, 2020).
Questions about policing are often based on how to change or how to meet or dissolve current issues within communities. While these forms of evaluations can be great or many aspects of business platforms; when it comes to social programs, they have a slightly different impact and efficiency status. Examining social causes or community issues a police force is unable to use treatment groups as they are unable to control who they come into contact with, when they will come into contact with individuals and under what circumstances they are to come into contact with the community. Evidence-based policing has been the go to form of evaluation when it comes to social or justice issues involving community issues surrounding the police (Bornmann, 2017).
Questions that can be used for each of the 5 steps in the Maryland Scientific Methods Scale can be used to examine the background of individuals that come into contact with the police. Questions such as: Have you been arrested before? Were you in a juvenile justice or behavioral institution prior to your 18th birthday? Is this your first time committing a crime? Have your experiences with the police resulted in positive impressions? (Klenowski, etc., 2010).
