Tools and Resources

The Framework for Evidence-Based Decision Making in Local Criminal Justice Systems (the Framework) is the principle product from Phase I of the EBDM initiative. Products to support the EBDM sites—as well as others who wish to follow in their footsteps—have been developed. The following tools are available to those interested in learning more about—or replicating the work of—the seven national EBDM sites.

EBDM Starter Kit

The EBDM Starter Kit provides guidance to jurisdictions that seek to implement justice practices that are based on evidence-based decisions. The Starter Kit is intended to assist local, collaborative criminal justice teams in building their capacity to engage in EBDM by providing a roadmap to, and the critical planning steps necessary for, successful implementation of EBDM.

The Starter Kit’s "Roadmap," informed by the experiences of the jurisdictions participating in Phase II of the initiative, includes the following steps:

1. building a genuine, collaborative policy team;
2. building individual agencies that are collaborative and in a state of readiness for change;
3. understanding current practice within each agency and across the system;
4. understanding and having the capacity to implement evidence-based practices;
5. developing logic models;
6. establishing performance measures, determining outcomes, and developing a system scorecard;
7. engaging and gaining the support of the community; and
8. developing a strategic action plan for implementation.

The Starter Kit will be available to jurisdictions interested in undertaking the EBDM Roadmap in 2012.

EBDM User’s Guides

A set of User’s Guides are under development for criminal justice stakeholders interested in learning more about how EBDM applies to their work. Each guide will describe

1. the EBDM research and how it might be applied to a particular discipline;
2. how a stakeholder can build an EBDM agency in an effort to become part of an effective EBDM justice system;
3. discipline-specific challenges and potential solutions; and
4. tools and resources.

While the User’s Guides are intended to complement the Framework and Starter Kit and to be used by a multidisciplinary collaborative team, stakeholders who are not currently involved in a collaborative effort may still find these resources useful. A set of User Guides will become available in 2012 for defense attorneys, judges, pretrial justice professionals, and prosecutors. Additional guides will be developed during Phase III of the initiative.

Other EBDM Initiative Products

1. a description of the EBDM Initiative and its Phases
2. an overview of the EBDM Sites' areas of focus in Phase III
3. an overview of the EBDM Sites' activities at the start of Phase III
4. a curriculum on evidence-based decision making and the EBDM initiative
5. a fact sheet summarizing the findings of the EBDM public opinion survey