The new U.S. Justice Department website that shows evaluations of anticrime programs will be expanded in the next year to include criminal-justice practices as well as specific programs, Phelan Wyrick of the Office of Justice Programs told criminal-justice organization representatives meeting in Washington, D.C. this week. The site, http://crimesolutions.gov, now provides information on about 150 evaluated programs in several categories, listing them as effective, promising, or “no effects.”
As an example of what will be added, Wyrick mentioned mentoring of youth to deter them from criminal careers. The site in the future will include “meta-analyses” that combine the results of several studies to evaluate a general practice like mentoring. Overall, the site hopes to add 60 program listings each year. Wyrick says the Justice Department hopes that the site will help policymakers around the nation make informed decisions, especially as they decide which programs to retain in a time of widespread budget cutbacks. He said that the department welcomes nominations from the field on programs that practitioners would like to see discussed on the site.