Considerable efforts and resources have been expended to enact reforms to the criminal justice system over the last five decades. Concerns about dramatic increases in violent crime beginning in the late Sixties and accelerating into the 1980s led to the “War on Drugs” and the “War on Crime” that included implementation of more punitive policies and dramatic increases in incarceration and community supervision. More recent reform efforts have focused on strategies to reduce the negative impacts of policing, the disparate impacts of pretrial practices, and better strategies for reducing criminal behavior. Renewed interest in strategies and interventions to reduce criminal behavior has coincided with a focus on identifying “what works.” Recent increases in violence have shifted the national dialog from a focus on progressive reforms to reduce reliance on punitive measures and the disparate impact of the legal system on some groups to a focus on increased investment in “tough on crime” criminal justice approaches. This essay offers some reflections on the “Waged Wars” and the efforts to identify “What Works” based on nearly 40 years of work evaluating criminal justice reform efforts.

在过去的 5 年里，已经花费了大量的努力和资源来对刑事司法系统进行改革。对从六十年代后期开始并加速进入 1980 年代的暴力犯罪急剧增加的担忧导致了“毒品战争”和“犯罪战争”，其中包括实施更多的惩罚性政策以及监禁和社区监督的急剧增加。最近的改革努力侧重于减少警务的负面影响、审前做法的不同影响的战略，以及减少犯罪行为的更好战略。人们对减少犯罪行为的战略和干预措施重新产生了兴趣，同时人们也开始关注确定“什么有效。” 最近暴力事件的增加使全国对话从关注渐进式改革以减少对惩罚措施的依赖和法律制度对某些群体的不同影响转移到关注增加对“严厉打击犯罪”刑事司法方法的投资。本文根据近 40 年评估刑事司法改革工作的工作，对“发动的战争”和确定“有效方法”的努力进行了一些反思。