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How to Measure Police Performance: Handling of Methodological Challenges in a Complex Police Environment
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| Presenter(s):
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| Morten Eikenes, Office of the Auditor General of Norway, morten.eikenes@riksrevisjonen.no
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| Abstract:
The Office of the Auditor General has the last years evaluated the Norwegian police performance. The evaluations that this paper is based on, represent different approaches when police performance is evaluated. The police operate in a complex and changing environment. In that regard the police have to handle many different types of crimes with limited amount of resources. New forms of crime have arised, such as organized crime. In addition the police have to handle the challenges due to the increased globalisation and the increase of mobility of goods, persons, information and capital. Viewed against this background it is therefore a complex and extensive field to evaluate. The following paper sheds light on the methodological challenges faced when the police performance should be evaluated and measured. In addition the paper offers possible solutions that might be useful to the field of evaluation.
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Getting Evaluation Findings Out of Prison: The Challenges of Doing Evaluation Work in a Total Institution
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| Presenter(s):
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| Eric Graig, Usable Knowledge LLC, egraig@usablellc.net
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| Abstract:
Conducting research in prisons is frequently costly, frustrating and difficult with success founded upon an upfront understanding of the particular challenges evaluators face when working in these settings. This paper begins by outlining the major features of the prison as a total institution. This discussion is based on both the academic literature and on accounts provided by those who make their lives in prisons, both the inmates themselves and those who make their living as their warders. From there, it moves to a discussion of the specific challenges that can make research work in prison so difficult These include access challenges, logistics, data collection limitations, the sometimes difficult relationship with prison staff and the paradoxical arbitrariness that characterizes these otherwise highly bureaucratic and rigidly structured institutions. The paper concludes with some ideas, collected after nearly a decade of work about how to deal with them.
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