Research in Brief Series

Court House Pillars

The purpose of the Research in Brief series is to evaluate popular or emerging policy and practice options pertaining to adults in the criminal justice system to determine whether there is an evidence base to support them. The briefs were written after researchers reviewed the best available research on the topics in the briefs. Researchers assessed the strength of the evidence in terms of the rigor of the research supporting these topics. In order to evaluate the strength of the research evidence in a standardized way, Robina Institute researchers created and followed an Evidence Assessment Criteria and a Hierarchy of Study Design, which are included below as the Evidence Assessment Chart. 

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Research for the initial briefs in this series was conducted to support the development of a comprehensive policy framework for improving probation and parole systems nationwide. The Pew Charitable Trusts and Arnold Ventures convened an expert advisory council to review the research and available evidence on best practices, and to make recommendations on policies for the framework. The resulting report, “Policy Reforms Can Strengthen Community Supervision,” presents a roadmap for state lawmakers and community supervision practitioners to decrease the size of the supervised population, reduce the use of incarceration as a sanction for rule violations, and increase successful outcomes for people on probation and parole.

The Research in Brief series was prepared with support from Arnold Ventures

Arnold Ventures