Scientific Evaluation in Crime Prevention: Challenges, Methods, and Theoretical Approaches

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Scientific Evaluation in Crime Prevention: Challenges, Methods, and TheoreticalApproachesBased on the readings, evaluate the importance of scientific evaluation in crimeprevention, discussing the challenges and benefits it presents forimproving policyand practice. In your answer, consider the role of theory, the mechanisms of crimeprevention, and the need for context sensitivity in evaluation. Additionally, reflecton how different evaluation methods, such as experimental designs and qualitativeassessments, contribute to understanding the effectiveness of crime preventionstrategies. Provide specific examples from the text to support your argument.Word Count Requirement:1500-2000 words.

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Evaluation in crime prevention is almost universally called for. It is widelyrequired by funding bodies, and, as a result, it is almost as widely attempted. It istechnically very tricky both in relation to specific initiatives (Ekblom, 1990) and inrelation to the sorts of partnership approach that are now widely promoted(Rosenbaum, this volume). Critics are agreed that standards are generally very low(Sherman et al., 1997; Ekblom and Pease, 1995; HMIC, 2000; Scott, 2001). Thereare some fundamental debates about how evaluation should be construed andconducted (Pawson and Tilley, 1997). There are also diverse stakeholders inevaluation, and a range of uses to which evaluations can be put. The papers in thisvolume are concerned primarily with the design and conduct of evaluations that areintended to help improve crime prevention policy and practice. Other possiblepurposes—for example to justify programs, to account for public expenditure, tocelebrate achievement, or to encourage greater participation in crime prevention—are not much at issue here. Much literature on crime prevention has stressed theimportanceofevaluationforprogramimprovement.Thepreventiveprocessdescribed by Ekblom (1988), the action research approach advocated by Clarke(1997), and the SARA (scanning, analysis, response, assessment) steps developedby Eck and Spelman (1987) to help operationalise Goldstein's (1979) problem-orientedpolicingallincludeevaluationasakeyelement.Thepurposeofevaluation in all cases is to provide feedback that will generate corrections to andrefinements in crime prevention theory, policy and practice. The University ofMaryland report to the United States Congress on evaluations in crime prevention(Sherman et al., 1997) and the British Home Office Crime Prevention Studies,volume14,pp.1-10.NickTilleyreportonfindingsofevaluationstudies(Goldblatt and Lewis, 1998) were both designed to inform improvements in whatwas done in an effort to reduce crime. Likewise, the emerging internationalCampbell Collaboration has a strong criminal justice stream, which promisessystematic reviews of crime prevention with the aim of improving the choice ofinterventions (Farrington and Petrosino, 2001). The bottom line in evaluation forcrime prevention, is of course, crucial. Evaluation results should allow us moreeffectively and efficiently to lessen crime and its effects, and we need to measureoutcomes in these terms. A number of tricky technical challenges confront themeasurement of outcome effectiveness. These include, for example, discountingregression-to-the-mean effects, establishing a secure counterfactual, attributingresponsibility for observed changes to the measures introduced, identifying activeingredients in packages of measures, identifying short and long-term effects,identifying significant side-effects, and attaching figures to costs and benefits ofinterventions. Though these technical challenges need to be met adequately ifevaluations are to be useful, that is not sufficient. Evaluations need, preferably at

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