By Vedat KARĞIN*

The effectiveness of crime prevention programs can be best understood through systematic analysis of the past studies that examined the effectiveness of crime prevention programs. The purpose of this paper was to show whether POP is effective in preventing crime and provide the most up-to-date information regarding the effectiveness of POP in crime prevention. Six of eight evaluation studies reviewed in this paper produced strong evidence that POP was an effective strategy in preventing all kinds of crime including serious violent and property crimes. Two evaluations found no positive impact of the programs on crime but these evaluations suffered from serious methodological problems. It is concluded that POP is an effective crime prevention strategy and should be continued to be supported.

Academia EDU. Polis Bilimleri Dergisi: 12 (3). 22p.

By  Kate Bowers , Lisa Tompson and Shane D. Johnson

In many disciplines, there is a wealth of primary evaluation research on what works, and systematic reviews that synthesize that evidence. This is, of course, extremely positive. However, the sheer scale of the information and the way in which it is indexed and presented can mean that it is difficult for practitioners to locate the best available evidence. For this reason, in health, education, and other disciplines, using techniques from information science, researchers have systematically assembled databases such as those hosted on healthevidence.org and educationendowmentfoundation.org which bring together the most reliable evidence. Hitherto, no such database has existed for crime and criminal justice interventions. This article sets out some of the challenges and early findings of one exercise which aims to produce such a database, being completed as part of the What Works Centre for Crime Reduction initiative in collaboration with the College of Policing. 

Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, Volume 17, 2023