A comprehensive and authoritative overview of issues relating to the evaluation of criminal justice/corrections 'interventions', this unique reference draws on a variety of theoretical, cultural and epistemological perspectives with authors from a range of disciplines and countries. It begins by looking at the purpose of evaluation within criminal justice systems as a historical and conceptual background. Methods outlined for evaluating criminal justice focus on educating readers about the design decisions they may face as evaluators, enabling them to make informed decisions when choosing...

Current conventions in school evaluation focus on accountability, control and compliance. New Zealand offers a distinctive, systemic alternative to school self-evaluation, with developmental and negotiated approaches ingrained throughout the education system, from school inspection to major government schooling improvement initiatives. In New Zealand there is no national testing, other than a Ministry-sponsored (voluntary) formative assessment system designed for school and teacher self-evaluation. This is a form of professional and program evaluation where there is shared power and...

In today's world, with its preoccupation with impact assessments and results-based management, program evaluation is all too often framed as an affirmation of an official narrative rather than as a source of alternatives. The power of case study is its insistence on opening up rather than suppressing the complexity of social programs, on documenting multiple voices and exploring contested viewpoints. In this way, case study resists the trend towards evaluations that simply focus on 'what works', that reduce the complexity of social life to a single narrative, and to formulations that strip...