ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the concept of evidence-based practice (EBP), and its applications in both the social work profession and the criminal justice system. Criminal justice practitioners have adopted the use of EBP in an attempt to improve public safety and criminal justice outcomes, such as reduced recidivism rates. The chapter discusses the basic research concepts necessary to understand the principles of EBP. It also reviews examples of interventions that have been demonstrated to be effective with criminal justice populations. Oftentimes social work students are not as passionate about the research course(s) as they are about practice courses, or pursuing social justice. True experimental designs use random assignment to allocate research participants to experimental and control groups. When considering the evidence and making decisions regarding which studies to include in a meta-analysis a decision needs to be made about whether to include studies in which participants were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups.
