NCJ Number
209847
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2005 Pages: 337-354
Date Published
April 2005
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This article summarizes the findings from a Campbell Collaboration Crime and Justice Group (CCJG) on what works best in terms of crime prevention programming.
Abstract
Crime prevention strategies should be based on what has been proven to work best to prevent criminal behavior. In an evidence-based society, policymakers should consult evaluations of crime prevention programs to discover which type of interventions work best and should base policy decisions on these research findings. In an effort to encourage thoughtful, evidence-based policy decisions concerning crime prevention programming, this article reviews the CCJG's recent findings on what works to prevent crime and victimization in the domains of at-risk children, offenders, victims, and high-crime places. Thirteen reviews are presented that illustrate the leading scientific statement on the intervention of crime in the domains under investigation. The reviews suggest that some of the most popular and widely used criminological interventions are ineffective and even harmful. Most of the interventions under review, however, are effective at preventing and reducing crime, and in some cases the reduction is quite sizeable. Some of the effective programming efforts fall under social skills training for children, cognitive-behavioral therapy and incarceration-based drug treatment for offenders, face-to-face restorative justice conferences, prevention of repeat residential burglary, hot spots policing, closed-circuit television surveillance, and improved street lighting. In addition to the continued assessment of current crime prevention initiatives, the authors encourage the development of a program of research on new crime prevention and intervention experiments. Notes, references