Evaluation Methods

Running head : Evaluation Methods

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Evaluation Methods

Experimental designs

Experiments are considered as the most powerful , most expensive and top guns in research design . However , experimental designs are rarely used in criminal justice because of the legal and ethical factors . Since the used subjects are actually agency personnel , prisoners or defendants , an experimental design of research is likely to benefit the group that is being treated while depriving the control group off the treatment . It therefore means that use of experimental design in

criminal justice is not appropriate as it is illegal and unethical (Neuman Wiegand 2000 .However , the design is appropriate in experiments in social sciences such as psychology and education because experiments involve harmless techniques and memory test

Quasi-experimental designs

Quasi-experimental designs involve variety of research design and they are almost similar to true experiment . Quasi-experimental designs are characterized by matching , unit of analysis , and time series . They are appropriate in criminal justice as they aim at capturing a sufficient number of various events and longer period of time to monitor various threats to reliability and validity (Neuman Wiegand , 2000

For example when a new law is taking effect , one can use time series to determine rates of crimes . However , Quasi-experimental research designs are not appropriate in situations that have no statistical baseline and naturally occurring or researcher-created interventions . For example the example given above to illustrate use of time series in criminal justice is effective because passage of law is naturally occurring . If...