An online tool to show ‘what works’ in reducing crime, on the evidence, has been launched. It’s on the College of Policing website.
The online portal launched with 14 topic areas, with many more added as new evidence and research is made available around what works in crime reduction. The effectiveness of street lighting, CCTV, electronic monitoring and prison visits to deter young offenders are among those topic areas included in the initial launch.
College of Policing chief executive Chief Constable Alex Marshall said: “The toolkit provides easy access to the crime reduction evidence base and allows users for the first time to weigh up evidence on the impact, cost and implementation of different interventions and use this to help in their crime reduction choices. Putting the best available evidence into the hands of policing professionals is a key part of the role of the College of Policing in equipping everyone in policing with the tools, skills and knowledge to do the job.”
The College of Policing and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has co-funded a consortium led by University College London (UCL) to identify and label all the existing reviews of research evidence on interventions to reduce crime. The findings have been ranked and rated by:
Effect– the impact on crime
Mechanism – how it works
Moderators – where it works best
Implementation – how to do it
Economic assessment – what it costs
College of Policing Director of Knowledge Research and Education Rachel Tuffin said: “Summarising the evidence on how and in which circumstances crime reduction interventions work is especially important for understanding programmes like the “Scared Straight” initiative. The evidence shows that young people at risk of future offending are not put off by visiting a prison and in fact may be more likely to offend afterwards.
“When we present evidence like this we’ve found several people thinking about implementing “Scared Straight” are keen to learn more. In times of austerity it’s important that decision-makers can weigh up all the available evidence before deciding to invest in such interventions.”
And Gloria Laycock, Jill Dando Professor of Crime Science at UCL and Director of the University Consortium providing research support to the What Works Centre, said: “Evidence is vital to crime reduction but to date much excellent research-based evidence has been difficult for practitioners to find and use. This initiative has provided a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase the best research and demonstrate its relevance to policy and practice. Over the coming years the information in the toolkit will grow as our knowledge grows – and crime reduction will be the better for it.”
Crime Reduction Toolkit: http://whatworks.college.police.uk/toolkit.
Example: Improved street lighting in public places
Overall, the evidence suggests that improved street lighting can reduce crime. Crime (violent and property) reduced by an average of 21% in treatment areas where street lighting was increased, relative to comparison areas without increased street lighting. Exactly how this effect is achieved remains currently unknown.
Example: CCTV
There is evidence that CCTV modestly reduces crime overall. There is also strong evidence that it is particularly effective in reducing crime in car parks. In looking at crime type specifically, the most significant reductions were for vehicle crime and there was no evidence of an effect on violent crime. Implementing CCTV with wider coverage, and in combination with other interventions, such as street lighting, can increase effectiveness. This overview does not consider the effect of CCTV on detection, public order or other uses.
Pictured: on-street CCTV and street light on Lillie Road, west London.
