Evaluation Needs of Crime Control Planners, Decisionmakers, and Policymakers Are Not Being Met

A Summary Gao ID: GGD-77-72A July 14, 1978

Since 1969, the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) awarded over $5 billion to state and local governments to reduce crime and delinquency. An analysis of evaluations of the impact and effectiveness of programs receiving these funds was summarized.

Evaluation activities of LEAA and the states have been inadequate to meet planning, decisionmaking, and policymaking needs of users concerned with the intergovernmental block grant crime control program. For example, the amount and types of evaluation work had not been adequate, and quality of evaluation activities and products was questionable, evaluation information users' needs were not being met, the allocation and management of evaluation resources needed improvement, and better coordination of evaluation program efforts was needed. LEAA should place greater emphasis upon building evaluation into programs and projects before they are started at the federal, state, and local levels, and exercise greater leadership.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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