Lessons from the Battle Over D.A.R.E.

Lessons from the Battle Over D.A.R.E.: The Complicated Relationship between Research and Practice

This report from the Center for Court Innovation will be of interest to some crime analysts who help their agencies keep up-to-date with the latest research. Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E) has been a controversial issue and used as an example of how police agencies are unwilling to apply results of research evidence in their practice. Since crime analysis often seeks to apply research evidence to influence decision-makers, perhaps there are lessons to be learned in this study beyond those that apply to D.A.R.E.

"As this paper details, the D.A.R.E. story is more complicated than it appears at first glance. In fact, a strong case can be made that many of the local communities that have chosen to retain D.A.R.E. in the face of scholarly criticism had good reasons for doing so. For many policymakers, the only question that matters when it comes to crime prevention is a simple one: does this program work or not? As the D.A.R.E. story indicates, the reality is almost always more complicated than this. D.A.R.E. is a case study not in black and white verdicts but in shades of grey."