Previous evaluations and research

Using the findings from evaluation and research studies conducted on the same or closely related areas is an important first step for evaluation planning. 

Looking at previous evaluation reports on the area you are interested in can give you an indication of what to measure and the types of data that is able to be collected, as well as giving you an idea of any gaps in the previous research that should have been filled and what problems previous researchers and evaluators encountered that you might have to negotiate.

In discussing the use of previously undertaken weak evaluations of community crime prevention programs by the Australian Institute of Criminology, Morgan and Homel argue that: 

"When viewed collectively, these ‘weak’ evaluations still have the potential to provide valuable information for decision-makers (Eck 2002). Eck recommends that for internal evaluations and small-scale projects with relatively modest objectives, there is arguably greater value in focusing on more thorough analysis of the problem, being more explicit in terms of the theory about how an intervention should work and then testing that hypothesis by conducting simple pre-post and short-term time-series studies to measure whether the intervention is having the desired effect. That way, projects can be refined until the desired outcomes are observed. Similarly, Morgan ;et al. (2012) argued that the accumulation of these weaker studies, despite their obvious drawbacks, can still provide a valuable evidence base about the implementation and possible impact of otherwise untested initiatives." (Morgan and Homel, 2013: 10)

Resources

Morgan, A. and Homel, P. (2013, July). 'Evaluating crime prevention: Lessons from large-scale community crime prevention programs' in Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice (no. 458)​ pp.441-460.

'Previous evaluations and research' is referenced in: