A central goal of this book is to contribute to efforts to improve criminal justice policy and to do so by showing how the systematic use of evaluation research can lead to less bad policy and more good policy. The ultimate aim is to help place criminal justice policy on a more rational footing, one where it has a chance of providing the accountability and the effectiveness that the public expects of it. At present, and as detailed in subsequent chapters, too many criminal justice policies are ill founded, ineffective, or inefficient, or they lack sufficient evidence to support them. Put differently, we have too much irrational criminal justice policy. I argue that increased reliance on the evaluation hierarchy in all parts of the criminal justice system and in the development and assessment of policy provides one critical platform for correcting this situation and fulfilling the public's desire for effective government.

This chapter sets the stage for this argument and the subsequent chapters in several ways. First, it briefly introduces the evaluation hierarchy as a framework for critiquing current policy. The details of the hierarchy are discussed in Chapter 3, but a discussion here provides a foothold for understanding the context – in particular, the lack of accountability and effective criminal justice policies – that motivates this book. Second, it provides a portrait of national crime and justice system trends, and, specifically, the dramatic increase in criminal justice populations and expenditures.