Transforming Criminal Justice with Data and Research Insights

The recent event held on 7 March 2025 under the theme “Data as a Driver: Informing Criminal Justice Policy and Practice with Evidence” marks a significant step forward in bridging the gap between data and criminal justice policy. This gathering brought together a diverse group of stakeholders, including policymakers, researchers, and practitioners, to enhance the understanding of the criminal justice data landscape and foster collaboration aimed at improving policy outcomes.

Organised by the Department of Justice alongside the Criminal Justice Sectoral Strategy Data Group, this event built upon previous efforts from 2023. Insights from the earlier event highlighted a strong need to comprehend the scope of data within the justice system, improve access, and integrate academic research more effectively into policymaking processes. Consequently, the 2025 event focused on three primary themes: data structures and access, data application, and research application. Through these sessions, participants were provided with comprehensive overviews and practical examples of data utilisation across the sector.

The day commenced with presentations from key justice bodies, such as the Department of Justice, Courts Service, An Garda Síochána, and Probation Service. These discussions mapped the existing data landscape, identifying collected datasets, their storage locations, and conditions for access. A notable advancement was the introduction of the Criminal Justice Data Catalogue, developed under the Criminal Justice Sectoral Strategy 2022-2024. This catalogue offers a comprehensive overview of datasets across the sector, detailing the nature of data collected, their storage systems, and conditions for access. By providing a centralised overview, it aims to reduce fragmentation and enhance data visibility for researchers and policymakers alike.

Additionally, the Courts Service Open Data Portal was launched as part of the Courts Service’s Data Strategy. This portal transforms static reports into structured, machine-readable formats accessible to the public. By publishing high-level aggregate data, initially focusing on annual report figures and expanding over time, the Courts Service sets a new standard for transparency and accountability. This move not only enhances access but also supports more rigorous analysis and informed policy discussions.

Despite these positive developments towards a more open data infrastructure, speakers emphasised the need for ongoing efforts, particularly in aligning definitions, improving interoperability, and ensuring practical and robust access arrangements for researchers. The event’s second session delved into how data is currently utilised to inform justice practices across various agencies. Notable examples included Forensic Science Ireland’s advancements in presumptive drug testing and diversion strategies, the Legal Aid Board’s data-driven outreach to improve access to family law services, and the Irish Prison Service’s operational dashboards supporting psychological services. These case studies demonstrated how administrative data, when structured and applied with intent, can lead to significant improvements in processes and outcomes. Data supports better resource allocation, more responsive service delivery, and a clearer understanding of user needs. Crucially, these examples highlighted that data quality improves when actively used and interrogated.

The final session showcased academic research employing diverse data types, underlining the value of collaboration between government and higher education institutions. Dr Ian Marder of Maynooth University presented on restorative justice, Chris Greene of Trinity College Dublin examined AI’s role in legal decision-making, and John Reddy from the University of Limerick shared insights from the REPPP study of Youth Diversion Projects using administrative data. Collectively, these presentations underscored academic research’s vital role in not only producing independent analyses but also in facilitating better questions, testing assumptions, and adopting a long-term perspective on impact and outcomes.

The “Data as a Driver” initiative demonstrated a keen interest in embedding data more deeply into criminal justice policy and practice. However, meaningful integration requires sustained attention to several critical areas. Transparency emerged as a central theme, not just as an abstract principle but as a practical tool for enhancing public policy. The development of the Data Catalogue and the Courts Service Open Data Portal serve as pivotal examples of this. They enable researchers and policymakers to identify existing information, thus assessing its relevance and potential value.

Initiatives focused on transparency contribute in several ways: they build trust by demonstrating data’s presence and usage, improve quality through scrutiny and standardisation, and reduce transaction costs by facilitating easier data access without relying on informal channels or lengthy requests. The next challenge lies in maintaining this momentum, keeping datasets updated, ensuring visibility, and using them strategically.

The event also underscored the importance of incorporating diverse perspectives when crafting justice policies. Academics offer independent, rigorous analysis and methodological innovation; practitioners provide practical insights into system operations and emerging challenges; and service users and civil society contribute lived experiences, grounding policy in everyday realities. Policymakers bring a comprehensive perspective, balancing evidence with political judgement, resource constraints, and institutional complexity.

A collaborative approach is gaining momentum, supported by structures such as the Criminal Justice Sectoral Strategy Data Group, engagement with the Central Statistics Office, and initiatives like the CORD Partnership, which fosters shared learning and co-produced insights. However, case studies also revealed the fragility of these arrangements without sustained support and resources.

Institutional culture plays a vital role in data-informed policymaking. It requires organisations to think and operate differently—supporting staff at all levels to understand and interrogate data, being open to change when new evidence emerges, and valuing learning as a fundamental public service feature, beyond compliance or output delivery.

Events like this one create spaces for reflection, shared learning, and dialogue across institutional boundaries. Tools like the data catalogue and open access portals are essential, yet relationships among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners are even more crucial in shaping change and determining progress.

Having observed the evolution of the justice sector’s approach to data since the inaugural Data-as-a-Driver event in 2023, it’s promising to see various organisations enhancing their internal analytics capacities. The commitment from entities like the Courts and Probation Services to make unpublished datasets open sets a valuable precedent for others to follow. An increasing recognition of data and research’s role in informing policy and practice bodes well for the sector.

There is considerable untapped potential for criminal justice policy and practice to leverage research and data analysis. Decades of research provide insights into crime prevention and response strategies, as well as organising criminal justice in humane and need-responsive ways. This knowledge base can support policy and practice areas, including policing, crime prevention, decarceration, desistance, and victim services expansion. For instance, research from Ireland and abroad could inform legislative changes promoting community sanctions over imprisonment.

Justice agencies can enhance infrastructure and train practitioners to collect and utilise administrative and other datasets. This enables organisations to monitor and improve practices, identify service provision gaps, and address ongoing challenges. For example, the Probation Service and Irish Prison Service need comprehensive datasets on healthcare needs to allocate limited resources effectively and determine which services to expand or establish. Academics from various institutions and disciplines could collaborate to help design and refine data collection infrastructure.

Furthermore, criminal justice agencies could partner with academics and external researchers to conduct evaluations and action research, exploring policy and practice effectiveness or supporting new approaches. This collaboration provides empirical insights into necessary changes or implementation strategies. For example, the Garda Divisional Protective Service Units’ cultures and processes remain unevaluated, while action research could assist in implementing youth justice workers’ new court accompaniment role for child defendants.

The integration of research evidence into policy cycles remains in early stages. It is essential to explore academic-policy engagement research evidence and other countries’ experiences to guide local efforts. A recent event at UCD featured Prof. Kathryn Oliver discussing knowledge exchange approaches and the value of Areas of Research Interest (ARIs) – published research questions and topics that improve policies and services by coordinating policy and research activity.

Oliver advocated for a shift from relational to systematic approaches: integrating evidence into policy requires more than knowing the right people. It demands infrastructure within government to enable systematic integration. While collaboration and relationship-building between academic researchers and policymakers are important, embedding evidence into policy cycles necessitates dedicated staffing and resources for scientific units in government departments and agencies, facilitating academic-policymaker engagement. Visible leadership, systems, and resources that support and reward research impact activities in higher education are crucial.

In Ireland’s criminal justice sector, initiatives like the CORD Partnership, aiming to embed interdisciplinary open research, bring together stakeholders to identify shared priorities and goals. Since the Agenda for 2025-26 publication, a subcommittee has been developing ARIs in Irish criminal justice. Chaired by Dr Kevin Wozniak, the committee is exploring ARIs’ international applications, internal consultation methods, and collaborations to develop and address ARIs in criminal and community justice organisations in Ireland.

The ultimate goal is a policy cycle where independent scientific advice is systematically sought, supported by systems assessing research evidence at the agenda-setting stage. If research evidence is not considered until direction is set, it may be too late for an evidence-based criminal justice policy and practice approach. Academics working on crime and criminal justice can leverage the collaborative ethos in Ireland’s sector to coordinate efforts towards this goal.