{"id":277,"date":"2014-08-18T18:14:52","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T18:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/ctss\/?p=277"},"modified":"2014-08-18T19:31:34","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T19:31:34","slug":"a-utilization-focused-guide-for-conducing-terrorism-risk-reduction-program-evaluations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/ctss\/2014\/08\/18\/a-utilization-focused-guide-for-conducing-terrorism-risk-reduction-program-evaluations\/","title":{"rendered":"A utilization focused guide for conducing terrorism risk reduction program evaluations"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the <\/i>Society for Terrorism Research (STR) 8th Annual International Conference<\/i><\/a> fast approaching, STR, partnered with the <\/i>Center for Terrorism and Security Studies (CTSS)<\/i><\/a>, is launching a series of guest blog posts, written by those who will be presenting their research at STR14. In the eighth installment of this series Dr. Michael Williams<\/a><\/i>\u00a0discusses his upcoming presentation on\u00a0conducting evaluations of risk reduction programs aimed at individuals involved in terrorism. Dr. Williams’s research\u00a0relates to countering violent extremism (CVE) and how to rehabilitate\/reintegrate those previously involved in such extremism. Here Dr. Williams breaks down the title of his presentation to outline exactly what is meant by “A utilization focused guide for conducting terrorism risk reduction program evaluations”.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

“A Utilization focused guide for conducting terrorism risk reduction program evaluations”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

What a lengthy, almost unwieldy, title for a presentation: one entitled after an article of the same name.\u00a0 To give an idea of the content of this presentation, let’s unpack that title, then you can evaluate whether it\u2019s worth your time to attend my talk at this year’s Society for Terrorism Research Conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Utilization Focused\u2026<\/h1>\n

The term \u201cUtilization focused\u201d evaluation was coined, and this genre of evaluation pioneered, by Michael Quinn Patton<\/a>, who emphasized that the most useful evaluations are those that are indeed used by the primary intended users (2008<\/a>).\u00a0 Though such a focus may seem common sense, would you believe that some evaluations are commissioned by those who aren\u2019t especially interested in gaining insights from their own evaluations, or that some evaluators aren\u2019t well aware of what evaluative information would be useful to their evaluations\u2019 key stakeholders?\u00a0 These are but a few of the foibles that the movement toward utilization focused evaluation was designed to avoid, and\u2014hence\u2014that this upcoming STR conference presentation is designed to highlight.<\/p>\n

\"Williams1\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

\u2026guide for conducting \u2026<\/h1>\n

The article upon which this presentation is based is a mini handbook: complete with evaluation checklists, and a practical self-assessment for would-be evaluators in this field, complete with recommended resources for such hopefuls to shore up, strengthen, or otherwise enhance their level of expertise to conduct evaluations of terrorism risk reduction programs.\u00a0 However, both this guide and this forthcoming presentation are intended not only for evaluation practitioners, but for anyone associated with terrorism risk reduction program evaluations.\u00a0 Such persons could include, for example, those who commission such evaluations, those who run the programs that are to be evaluated, or those who simply wish to enhance their understanding either of the processes of such evaluations or the answers those evaluations can provide.\u00a0 Likewise, this presentation intends to be no less practical, toward those same ends, and for those same prospective audiences.<\/p>\n

\u2026terrorism risk reduction program evaluations<\/h1>\n

First coined by the good doctors Horgan<\/a> and Braddock<\/a> (2010), the term \u201cTerrorism risk reduction initiative<\/a>\u201d is one that encompass programs intended to prevent individuals from engaging in, or otherwise supporting, terrorism\/violent extremism.\u00a0 Such programs can include, for example, those designed to prevent individuals from considering ideologically-rationalized violence, to those designed to prevent recidivism among those incarcerated for terrorism-related offenses.\u00a0 Although the article upon which this presentation is based was designed primarily to inform so-called impact evaluations of programs intended to rehabilitate those incarcerated for terrorism-related offenses, its lessons\u2014hence those of the present presentation\u2014are intended to be of use in evaluations of virtually any terrorism risk reduction initiative.<\/p>\n

\"Williams2\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

Knowledge check, interim evaluation, and prospective next steps<\/h1>\n

If the title of this presentation seems, now (at least a bit) less opaque or convoluted: good.\u00a0 If you think you\u2019d like to attend this presentation, at the upcoming STR conference: great.\u00a0 Furthermore, if you\u2019d like to connect with me via your preferred social media, please feel free (below).\u00a0 Also, given that you\u2019ve gotten to the bottom of this blog post, you might enjoy the features on my monthly blog, \u201cCVE & HUMINT:\u201d http:\/\/cveandhumint.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"CTSS.Podcast.logo\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

Thank you\u2026<\/h1>\n

\u2026for reading this blog feature, and thanks both to Dr. Horgan, and Senior Research Associate of UML\u2019s Center for Terrorism and Security Studies<\/a>, Neil Shortland<\/a>, for inviting me both to present, on this topic, at this year\u2019s STR conference, and to write this feature for the Center\u2019s blog<\/p>\n

Feel free to connect with me through your preferred social media.<\/b><\/p>\n

Twitter:\u00a0@MickWilliamsPhD<\/a><\/p>\n

Facebook:\u00a0www.facebook.com\/mickwilliamsphd<\/a><\/p>\n

LinkedIn:\u00a0www.linkedin.com\/in\/mickwilliamsphd<\/a><\/p>\n

Google+:\u00a0https:\/\/plus.google.com\/u\/0\/114208856950632455069\/about<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Williams will be presenting a \u201cA Utilization focused guide for conducting terrorism risk reduction program evaluations\u201d on Day 3 of the<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>Society for Terrorism Research Conference on Communication and Collaboration for Counter-Terrorism, September 17-19th, in Boston, MA.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

A list of all the talks we have at the STR conference is now available via our\u00a0<\/i>preliminary program<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

If you are also presenting at STR14 and would like the opportunity to write a blog post for this series please contact\u00a0<\/i>strconference@uml.edu<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Society for Terrorism Research (STR) 8th Annual International Conference fast approaching, STR, partnered with the Center for Terrorism and Security Studies (CTSS), is launching a series of guest blog posts, written by those who will be presenting their … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25,1],"tags":[30,31,40,3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/ctss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/ctss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/ctss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/ctss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/ctss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/ctss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/ctss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions\/286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/ctss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/ctss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/ctss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}