SW 340 Advocacy for Policy Change: Evaluation & Research Articles
What is the Policy Impact?
To learn about the impact of a social policy, look for:
- Evaluative reports and statistics produced by government bodies that may have analyzed policy;
- Resources produced by advocacy organizations, think tanks, and research institutes. These may provide detailed analysis of policies and their impacts; and
- Scholarly articles reporting research on policies, their impact, and implementations.
Scholarly Article Databases
- PAIS Index (Public Affairs Information Service)Covers public affairs, public and social policy, and international relations. Includes national and international journal articles, books, government documents, statistics, grey literature, research reports, conference papers, microfiche, and pertinent web sites.
- Worldwide Political Science AbstractsIndexes articles related to political institutions, international law and politics, public policy, public administration, political theory, and political economics. Indexes sources from 1975 to the present.
- Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full TextOffers citations, abstracts, and full text articles in scholarly journals on crime trends, prevention and deterrence, juveniles, police, courts,and sentencing.
- Social Services AbstractsIncludes citations of journal articles, dissertations, and conference proceedings focused on social work, human services, social welfare, social policy, and community development.
- PsycINFOMaintains citations and abstracts for journal articles, books, and dissertations in psychology about human behavior from 1879 to the present. Nearly 2500 journals are indexed in PsycINFO, and the database is updated weekly.
The Trouble with the Dream Act
If you are researching a newly enacted policy or a bill that has been introduced, but never passed (like the Dream Act), the impact of the policy has not been assessed yet. Typically, research on the impact of a policy will take at least two years after implementation to appear.
You might want to look for similar policies at the state or federal level and see if any research has been done on those.