When officials or leaders make decisions without good data, they rely on hunches, assumptions, anecdotes, or past experience transplanted from other contexts. In the aftermath of atrocity—where resources are scarce and stakes are high—communities cannot afford uninformed decisions.

Evidence-based decision making means grounding justice efforts in two kinds of knowledge: what affected communities have actually experienced, what they know, what they believe, and what they need; and what justice interventions have been shown to work, and under what conditions. This evidence should inform how justice policies, programs, and mechanisms are designed, carried out, and evaluated. The goal is policies that respond to survivors’ realities and what interventions are effective, not external assumptions that may be based on experiences that bear little relevance to the context at hand

Such data can be collected through a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, such as key informant interviews, focus groups, participatory action research, population-based perception surveys, longitudinal surveys, and event-based coding. ARC for Justice has developed a practical resource and tool for policy makers about how to gather this data in a trauma-informed and rigorous way throughout the justice process.