Frequently Asked Questions
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Do I have to ask all 700 questions? No! Both you and the interviewee
would be fast asleep before you ever got that far. The individual queries
are designed primarily to frame the conversations and although experts
should be able to answer each query, every question need not be asked.
Experts will be able to deduce the answers to many queries simply from
their facility observations, as well as from the context of the interviewee’s
answers to previous questions. The exercise is framed by the 100 or so
“Capabil ities,” after which CJSART relies heavily on our criminal justice
experts to “see around corners” and provide insight on the causes and
effects they have observed.
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Are there any questions that MUST be asked? Yes! Throughout the
Tool are several dozen underlined queries. These must be asked directly
if the information is not reliably ascertainable during the course of the
interview. These particular questions have been deemed essential USG
interests or are basic criminal justice building-blocks. Typically these
questions are those that involve human rights and/or are of a very
fundamental nature.
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Is one assessment tool used world-wide? Yes. The emphasis is on a
rigorous, replicable measurement of justice sector maturity and
institutional performance within a specific country. Predominantly, the
criminal justice institutions are measured against themselves using a
common, standardized yardstick to ensure that ongoing institutional
reform may be reliably quantified. The goal of the tool is to help
establish foreign assistance priorities within a country using a reliable,
orderly and established benchmarking system. Assessors are
encouraged to rely on their experience but are discouraged from making
direct country to country comparisons excepting to typify proposals for
further assistance and development.
•
Does the Tool measure political will? Experts have long labored to
measure the important, but oft ill-defined, political will. There is no
doubt that political will, the willingness of a government to actually do
something, is a vital factor if there is to be any hope of sustainability in
a nation’s criminal justice sector. CJSART is based on operationalized
concepts as well as functional institutional capacity and does not
attempt to quantify political will outright. In essence, CJSART primarily
focuses its energy in trying to quantify political will’s footprints.
Nonetheless, experts should be ever vigilant for signs that a country’s will
to act does not match their rhetoric. Further, before the experts travel,
the desk study often will bring together what authoritative analysis is
currently available regarding a country’s political will.
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