Research partners in criminal justice: notes from Syracuse

Abstract

Academics and practitioners recognize that research partnerships can benefit both research and practice. Many such partnerships, of varying scope and duration, have been formed over the past 20 years. However, while we have learned some lessons about such partnerships, we have much yet to learn about how research partnerships can be sustained and put to their greatest use. In this paper, we describe the functions that comprise the research partner role, and we draw from our experience as a research partner in one city – Syracuse, NY – to illustrate the performance of those functions and to reflexively distill from that experience some lessons for the development and maintenance of research partnerships. We discuss the factors that we believe shaped the success with which the partnership has operated, and the challenges that we confronted.

Keywords:

• researcher–practitioner partnership
• collaboration
• applied research
• action research

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge our partners, without whom we would have nothing to say about research partnerships. At the risk of insulting many through their omission, we would particularly thank (in alphabetical order): Janet Burke; John Duncan; Frank Fowler; Gary Miguel; Stephanie Miner; Jim Quick; Richard Trudell; Rick Trunfio; and Linda Wright.

Notes

1. Integrated Municipal Police Anti-Crime Team.

2. The NIJ supported Researcher–Practitioner Partnerships Study similarly suggests that final products should take a variety of forms (Sullivan, McPartland, et al., 2013).