Moving from Description to Implementation of Evidence‐Based Research Findings

• Published date: 01 February 2014
• Date: 01 February 2014
• Author: Alex R. Piquero
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12065

POLICY ESSAY

SERIOUS, VIOLENT, AND CHRONIC

JUVENILE OFFENDERS

Moving from Description to Implementation

of Evidence-Based Research Findings

Alex R. Piquero

University of Texas at Dallas

At the 2013 ASC meetings, a stellar panel composed of Todd Clear, Jim Lynch,

Laurie Robinson, and Charles Wellford discussed the topic “The ASC and Public

Policy.” Although several important comments were made during the various

presentations, which were decidedly focused on the role of the ASC in public policy, one

of the key themes to emerge from that session concerned the importance of recognizing

the value of evidence-based science as well as an understanding of the political nature of

the juvenile and criminal justice decision-making context both outside as well as inside the

DC Beltway. It is not just producing the good science that matters, but equally difficult is

overcoming the challenge of getting that work into the hands of policy makers in a way that

they can then understand the research. Even more daunting is getting that work translated

into effective public policy and scaling it up to a larger level.

On the heels of that backdrop, readers of CPP have just finished reading a very good

example of a careful, descriptive analysis of serious, violent, and chronic (SVC) juvenile

offenders from the state of Florida. Using a comprehensive data set of all youth who received

a delinquency referral to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (FDJJ) between 2007–

2008 and 2011–2012 as well as a subsample of all juveniles that completed a FDJJ placement

during fiscal year 2009–2010 and then followed for a subsequent year post-completion to

examine juvenile recidivism, Baglivio, Jackowski, Greenwald,and Howell (2014, this issue)

extended Snyder’s(1998) very important analysis of SVC offenders to examine issues related

to the prevalence of SVC offenders over time as well as the extent to which specific risk

and protective factors related to recidivism (measured as both rearrest and reconviction).

Aside from their substantive findings regarding the prevalence and characteristics associated

with SVC and the correlates of recidivism, Baglivio et al. also discussed how their research

has led to important changes in resource allocations throughout the FDJJ and how the

Direct correspondence to Alex R. Piquero, University of Texas at Dallas, Program in Criminology, 800 W.

Campbell Road, GR31, Richardson, TX 75080-3021 (e-mail: apiquero@utdallas.edu).

DOI:10.1111/1745-9133.12065 C2014 American Society of Criminology 127

Criminology & Public Policy rVolume 13 rIssue 1