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5 - A Review of Systematic Reviews in Policing

from Part II - The Evidence for Evidence-Based Policing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2023

By
Cody W. Telep  and
David Weisburd
Edited by
David Weisburd ,
Tal Jonathan-Zamir ,
Gali Perry  and
Badi Hasisi
David Weisburd
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem and George Mason University, Virginia
Tal Jonathan-Zamir
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Gali Perry
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Badi Hasisi
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Summary

Systematic reviews in policing have become an increasingly common way for researchers to synthesize the state of research on programs, practices, and policies. Reviews utilize comprehensive and transparent search strategies to identify and summarize the evidence base for a particular topic, providing rigorous assessments of the state of scientific knowledge about policing strategies needed for evidence-based policing. This chapter summarizes findings and conclusions from systematic reviews on policing, building on an earlier paper that included 17 policing reviews completed between 2004 and 2015. In the current chapter, we identify updates to five of these reviews, and new reviews on 13 policing topics. Our “review of reviews” on 30 policing topics suggests a growth in primary research in policing, and in particular an increase in reviews on non-crime control topics. But we also suggest existing reviews provide insufficient “how to” guidance for implementing evidence-based strategies. We argue in concluding that scholars have succeeded in providing a “first generation” of studies that tell us whether general policing approaches are effective, but a much larger evidence based is needed for a “second generation” of systematic reviews that would provide specific guidance about choosing and implementing evidence-based practices in the field.

Keywords

Campbell CollaborationMeta-analysisOfficer well-beingPolice effectivenessPolice legitimacyPolice trainingRandomized controlled trialSystematic reviewWhat works?
Type
Chapter
Information
The Future of Evidence-Based Policing , pp. 85 - 106
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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