Rethinking Program Fidelity for Criminal Justice

The author argues that such mixed-method evaluation research is underused in applied criminology and criminal justice science. In these domains, the objectives and design requirements of the process phase are poorly defined and blurred with the functions of pure qualitative research. Although applied field work enables an exploration of phenomena and contextualization of quantitative findings, process evaluation uses qualitative techniques to capture data on the circumstances and features of the actions and services that produced the outcomes measured with quantitative data. Accordingly, the foremost objective of process evaluation is to ascertain program fidelity, a concept that determines whether treatment services have been delivered in accordance with program theory and design.