Evaluating Funding Requests

Centervale councilman Pete Parsimonious has received funding requests for two competing juvenile corrections boot camp programs and requires your assistance on how to evaluate program success through appropriate research. There is a general perception that one of the two programs is only marginally successful while the other succeeds through much lower recidivism rates. Of course, the director for each program cites the outstanding success of his or her program in the funding application but fails to provide any research data to support these claims.

The intent of this assignment is to help you refer to empirical-based observations that can be quantitative (e.g., expressed as numbers) or qualitative (e.g., expressed as objects, words, or pictures)—specifically, the assignment will help you understand why one boot camp excels over the other in statistical terms particularly relating to lower recidivism rates.

Tasks:

1. Conduct research related to juvenile justice boot camp programs using the Argosy University Online Library resources, the National Institute of Justice Data Collections, or the National Criminal Justice Reference Service Databases.
2. Look for potential pitfalls in boot camp programs. Select two articles from your research that have taken different approaches to evaluate boot camp programs.
3. Based on the programs you read about, prepare a memo. In the memo:
   1. Describe the research approaches and types of data that were utilized in each of the two studies.
   2. Identify any ethical issues Parsimonious should be concerned about as a city councilman making a recommendation to invest public funds in a program of this type. Provide the reason for your choice.
   3. Discuss whether either of these approaches should be recommended to Parsimonious and support your position based on the effectiveness and impact of the program. You might also comment on the setbacks or failure issues if reported in the studies you have chosen.
   4. Be sure to cite the resources you used in the APA style.