Book contents
- The Future of Evidence-Based Policing
- The Future of Evidence-Based Policing
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Editors
- 1 The Future of Evidence-Based Policing
- Part I Taking Stock of Evidence-Based Policing
- Part II The Evidence for Evidence-Based Policing
- Part III Innovations in Tools of Evaluation and Assessment
- 8 The Role of Randomized Experiments in Developing the Evidence for Evidence-Based Policing
- 9 The Potential Contribution of Subjective Causality to Policing Research
- Part IV Challenges to the Implementation of Evidence-Based Policing
- Part V The Practitioner’s Perspective
- 17 Conclusions
- Index
- References
8 - The Role of Randomized Experiments in Developing the Evidence for Evidence-Based Policing
from Part III - Innovations in Tools of Evaluation and Assessment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2023
Book contents
- The Future of Evidence-Based Policing
- The Future of Evidence-Based Policing
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Editors
- 1 The Future of Evidence-Based Policing
- Part I Taking Stock of Evidence-Based Policing
- Part II The Evidence for Evidence-Based Policing
- Part III Innovations in Tools of Evaluation and Assessment
- 8 The Role of Randomized Experiments in Developing the Evidence for Evidence-Based Policing
- 9 The Potential Contribution of Subjective Causality to Policing Research
- Part IV Challenges to the Implementation of Evidence-Based Policing
- Part V The Practitioner’s Perspective
- 17 Conclusions
- Index
- References
Summary
Randomized experiments, quasi-experiments and systematic reviews are critical for developing the evidence for evidence-based policing. In this paper, we explore the role of experiments in contributing to the evidence base in policing. Drawing on the Global Policing Database (GPD) corpus of 3,487 high quality evaluation studies in policing, including 431 randomized controlled trials, we describe the breadth and depth of the evidence base in policing. We find that randomized controlled trials form only about 12 percent of the total evidence based in policing, yet this small number of trials has had enormous policy influence over the last fifty years. We also find that most of the evidence in policing is around frontline policing practices and about half of the RCTs in the world come from the US: a greater proportion of RCTs coming from outside of the US than previously reported. We conclude that the breadth of people and places generating high quality evidence will help generalize policing policies and practices beyond the US and is likely to have a snowball effect in fostering the next generation of experimentalists in policing.
Keywords
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- Information
- The Future of Evidence-Based Policing , pp. 147 - 169Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
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