What is the Effectiveness of Agencies?

• A. The budget allocated to agencies.
• B. Measure of how well agencies achieve social control.
• C. The number of staff in agencies.
• D. Public opinion about the agencies.

Answer: (B)

Effectiveness is about whether agencies actually deliver on their purpose. In criminology, that purpose is social control—keeping order, deterring crime, and protecting the public. So the best choice is the measure of how well agencies achieve social control, because it looks at outcomes: do crime levels fall, are offenders detected and brought to justice, and is public safety improved?

Budgets, staff numbers, and public opinion describe inputs or perceptions—resources available, capacity, and how people feel about the agency. They don’t by themselves show whether the agency is achieving its intended outcomes.