Posted: January 31st, 2023

Select a criminal justice research-based article from a peer-reviewed journal in the University Library. Discuss the article with your Learning Team. Create an 4- to 8 -slide Microsoft PowerPoint

Select a criminal justice research-based article from a peer-reviewed journal in the University Library.Discuss the article with your Learning Team.Create an 4- to 8 -slide Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation based on the article in which you include the following:ARTICLE CHOSEN: SEE ATTACHMENTA description of the research design A description of the methodology Format your presentation consistent with APA guidelines.

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POLICY ESSAY
I M P R I S O N M E N T A N D C R I M E
The challenges of implementing
research-based policies
Durlauf and Nagin (2011, this issue) have developed a compelling argument for
public safety policy initiatives that follow from criminological research. Two
features of the piece are particularly useful. First, although a long history exists
of examining deterrence within the field of criminology, surprisingly little discussion has
taken place about the issue in broader public policy debates. In particular, the assessment of
the relative impacts of the certainty and severity of punishment is important in the current
era of “get tough” sentencing. Although prison populations have escalated dramatically as a
result of changes in sentencing policy and practice, any discussion about the relative merits
of these changes has focused largely on incapacitation effects. Such an assessment is not
unreasonable, but it does result in overlooking a potentially significant area of analysis—
analyzing the deterrent effect of increasingly longer prison terms particularly at a moment
when such policies are already extremely harsh.
Durlauf and Nagin’s (2011) other contribution is to lay out a strategy that holds
the promise of both less crime and less incarceration by using the deterrence findings
to call for resource shifts designed to enhance the certainty of punishment at the level
of law enforcement. In a rational world, both policy makers and the public would
welcome such outcomes and engage in a process to consider how to implement such a
strategy.
Thus, Durlauf and Nagin (2011) have provided us with a clear direction to advance
policy objectives. To assess the feasibility and potential for such an initiative, let me raise

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POLICY ESSAY
I M P R I S O N M E N T A N D C R I M E
The challenges of implementing
research-based policies
some questions about the challenges involved in implementing such a strategy and the context in
which such a shift would take place. The following issues in particular flow from this analysis.
Advancing the “Certainty Versus Severity” Argument with PolicyMakers
It is no secret that the policies that have produced mass incarceration have run counter
to virtually all research findings and recommendations of the field of criminology. As
Rep. Bobby Scott, Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism,
and Homeland Security, often has noted, “We have a choice—we can reduce crime or
we can play politics”(Scott, 2009).
Despite the fact that research-based evidence exists on how to produce public safety more
effectively, far too many political leaders have embraced ideological and sound-bite–driven
policies that have led to unprecedented prison populations along with diminishing returns for
public safety. In recent years, several factors have come together to create a climate that ismore
hospitable for the consideration of broad based strategies, one that could be receptive to analyses
of deterrence issues. These factors include the constraints on spending produced by the fiscal
crisis, the growing interest in evidence-based programming in sentencing and corrections, and
bipartisan support for initiatives such as reentry and justice reinvestment as components of a
public safety strategy.
Arguing against this development, however, are the decades-long dynamics of enacting
criminal justice policy. All too often we have observed mandatory sentencing and
other overly punitive policies adopted in the heat of the moment after a particularly
sensationalized crime, with little regard for impact or effectiveness. Federal sentencing

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