Diffusing translational criminology: An intergroup communication and accommodation approach

Translational criminology emerged from the evidence-based criminology movement, which relies on rigorous research to amass scientific evidence about how to improve fairness and effectiveness in criminal justice. While evidence-based criminology focuses primarily on developing scientific evidence about which programs, practices, and interventions are most effective, translational criminology is concerned with how to disseminate that knowledge to those practitioners and policy makers who can use it most. Moreover, it is concerned with ensuring that those practitioners and policy makers understand the evidence and know what to do with it. In this paper, we introduce theories and concepts from the study of intergroup communication and accommodation and illustrate their utility for understanding and improving translational criminology and related efforts to translate science into policy and practice.