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Beyond 'What Works': Advancing Understanding of Crime through Systematic Reviews

New Content ItemEdited by Rob T. Guerette, Florida International University

Since their origins in the health sciences, systematic reviews and meta-analyses in criminology have largely been focused on the effectiveness of various interventions in preventing crimes and other problem behavior. Yet the strength of systematic reviews also makes them useful for synthesizing and improving our understanding of crime more in general, such as environmental aspects, its patterns, organization, and explanation.

This article collection is devoted to systematic reviews and meta-analyses that are intended to improve that understanding. It includes actual systematic reviews and meta-analyses as well as comments and thoughts on the matter. Additionally, it hosts other empirical manuscripts that are relevant to the use of systematic reviews as a means to improve knowledge of specific aspects.


Pic by Tony Webster CC BY-SA 4.0

  1. That crime is concentrated at a few places is well established by over 44 studies. This is true whether one examines addresses or street segments. Additionally, crime is concentrated among offenders and victim...

    Authors: John E. Eck, YongJei Lee, SooHyun O and Natalie Martinez
    Citation: Crime Science 2017 6:8
  2. Retailers routinely use security tags to reduce theft. Presently, however, there has been no attempt to systematically review the literature on security tags. Guided by the acronym EMMIE, this paper set out to...

    Authors: Aiden Sidebottom, Amy Thornton, Lisa Tompson, Jyoti Belur, Nick Tilley and Kate Bowers
    Citation: Crime Science 2017 6:7