Court Data Management: Considerations for Improvement and Implications for Researcher-Practitioner Collaboration

• In Event: Data and Risk Assessments in Courts

Abstract

The foundation of valid and rigorous research is good data. However, criminal justice agencies often lack the resources and domain expertise to follow best practices of data collection, management, usage, and reporting. One common issue in data management among criminal justice agencies is the lack of communication between the court case management system with the data management systems of relevant decision points, including pretrial and corrections. Such lack of communication may limit the utility of courts and sentencing data in rigorous academic research. In the context of researcher-practitioner collaboration, this paper examines how certain criminal justice data maintenance practices shape academic scholarship. Specifically, this paper offers a commentary on how researchers can help practitioners identify issues in their court case management systems and assist them in collecting research-ready data, with a focus on building data management systems that allow efficient communication among various stakeholders. Preliminary findings underscore the importance of researcher-practitioner communication to the validity of criminological research findings.

Authors

• Erica Bower, Crime and Justice Institute

• Mei Yang, Crime and Justice Institute