ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights some of the many successful researcher-practitioner partnerships research team at the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence (ACE!) has with criminal justice agencies. It details four specific partnerships with federal, state, and county criminal justice organizations spanning from probation and parole to problem-solving courts. The chapter reviews prior literature on researcher-practitioner partnerships. Prior research identifies many strategies and components necessary for creating and sustaining successful collaborations. The process of creating collaborations and partnerships should focus on how to sustain the partnerships. Despite the benefits, participants in organizational partnerships report several challenges such as preventing misuse of research findings, using appropriate and non-offensive language, and influencing funders' perceptions of important research questions. The chapter provides a five-pronged framework defining research- practitioner partnerships complete with project-specific examples. These include: access; agreements; goal setting; feedback; and relationship maintenance. Finally, the chapter offers some conclusions about the collaborative benefits of a researcher-practitioner team approach.
