Do Not Shoot the Messenger

• Date: 01 August 2013
• Author: Cheryl L. Maxson
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12052
• Published date: 01 August 2013

POLICY ESSAY

EVALUATION OF THE G.R.E.A.T.

PROGRAM

Do Not Shoot the Messenger

The Utility of Gang Risk Research in Program Targeting

and Content

Cheryl L. Maxson

University of California, Irvine

Finn-Aage Esbensen tells the story of walking into a room full of cops to deliver the

news that the initial Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.)program

developed by local police officers and brought to scale by federal law enforcement

just was not working (personal communication, September 26, 2013). Instead of reaching

for their guns, the program managers deserve a lot of credit for asking “what can we do

to make it better?” In concluding comments to their systematic review of gang control

strategies, Gravel, Bouchard, Descormiers, Wong, and Morselli (2013: 240) noted:

It is crucial now more than ever to be able to give an answer to the dreaded

question “what works?”But, perhaps more importantly, gang researchers should

also be able to answer two questions: “Why is it not working?” And, “how can

we make it work?”

G.R.E.A.T. provides a textbook example of how good evaluation can positively impact

program content and outcomes. Not only did Esbensen deliver this news, but also he

led a team to advise on appropriate program alterations and produced a massive, multi-

method evaluation of the revised G.R.E.A.T. program. Along the way, he and his team have

mined these data to make contributions to the academic and practice literatures on street

gangs, delinquency, school violence, theory, and evaluation methods, among others via a

book, more than 50 articles and chapters, and six doctoral dissertations (Finn-Aage Es-

bensen, personal communication, September 17, 2013). So, along with his colleagues and

students, a broad audience has benefited from the fact that the messenger was not shot that

Direct correspondence to Cheryl L. Maxson. Department of Criminology, Law and Society, School of Social

Ecology, University of California, Irvine, 2309 Social Ecology II, Irvine, CA 92697-7050 (e-mail:

cmaxson@uci. edu).

DOI:10.1111/1745-9133.12052 C2013 American Society of Criminology 421

Criminology & Public Policy rVolume 12 rIssue 3