Author ORCID Identifier
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-15-2018
Publication Title
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice
Volume
34
Issue
1
First Page
13
Last Page
34
Abstract
On the basis of limited empirical evidence, advocates of Project HOPE (Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement) have succeeded in spreading the model to a reported 31 states and 160 locations. A recent randomized control experiment across four sites has revealed negative results: no overall effect on recidivism. In this context, we examine how prominent advocates of Project HOPE have coped with the arrival of this “bad news.” Despite null findings from a “gold standard” evaluation study, advocates continue to express confidence in the HOPE model and to support its further implementation. The risk thus exists that Project HOPE is entering a post-factual world in which diminishing its appeal—let alone its falsification—is not possible. It is the collective responsibility of corrections researchers to warn policy makers that the HOPE model is not a proven intervention and may not be effective in many agencies. It is also our responsibility to create a science of community supervision that can establish more definitively best practices in this area.
Recommended Citation
Cullen, F. T., Pratt, T. C., Turanovic, J. J., & Butler, L. (2017). When bad news arrives: Project HOPE in a post-factual world. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 34, 13–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862177504
Comments
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Sage in Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice on January 15, 2018, available online: https://doi.org/10.1177/1043986217750424
Reuse restricted to noncommercial and no derivative uses.
Copyright held by authors