The Role of Change Agents As the move toward an evidence-based approach to criminology has accelerated over the past decade, increased attention has been paid to strategies that attempt to ensure that the knowledge gained from the best evidence is actually used in practice. For strategies to work, linkages between basic research and practice are necessary to ensure that research is used to its fullest potential. These liaisons or change agents will bring many benefits to the task force and I hope to provide you with a comprehensive list of talented change agents who can be useful on our advisory board. Having a change agent between basic research and practice offers a number of advantages. benefits. By engaging in research, the officer becomes familiar with intervention programs and is sometimes generally engaged in intervention programs. This debunks the idea that researchers “aren’t aware of what’s actually happening on the ground,” of the rhetorical type. Change agents successfully bridge the gap between research and practice by using the theoretical foundations of research to guide intervention programs. Rather than relying on comforting anecdotes, evidence of what works is integrated into policies, guidelines and practical tools, which subsequently produces much stronger results. By using research and engaging in practice, agents can also improve the usefulness of research by making research more useful. evidence is made more usable by improving the capacity of management and policy makers to use it. For example, they develop translation tools to improve communication between research and practice. Research is an exhaustive process: there are lots of words, numbers, charts and models, but change agents can dissect what's in the middle of the paper.......Internet. .MacKenzie, Doris. “What works in corrections?” » Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. June 1998. The web. “Vera Institute of Justice, the mothership of nonprofit social services.” Nonprofit Press of New York. August 26, 2009. Web.CSOSA: District of Columbia Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency, Community Supervision. (2010). Electronic surveillance. Retrieved from http://csosa.gov/supervision/accountablity/monitroing.aspx.Sipes, L. (December 3, 2009). GPS Tracking of Criminal Offenders – Research Overview. Retrieved from http://media.csosa.gov/blog/2009/12/gps-tracking-of-criminal-offenders-research-overview/