This book focuses on the importance of incorporating both sociological and psychological viewpoints in the understanding of criminal behavior. It identifies and explains emerging criminal offenders within the criminal justice system, examining the individual differences that make different types of offenders unique.

Crime prevention policy and practice is, on the whole, far from objective. Instead of being based on scientific evidence, the crime policy agenda is seemingly driven by political ideology, anecdotal evidence and programme trends. Evidence-Based Crime Prevention seeks to change this by comprehensively and rigorously assessing the existing scientific knowledge on the effectiveness of crime prevention programmes internationally. Reviewing more than 600 scientific evaluations of programmes intended to prevent crime in settings such as families, schools, labour markets and communities, this book grades programmes on their scientific validity using the 'scientific methods scale'. This collection, which brings together contributions from leading researchers in the field of crime prevention, will provide policy-makers, researchers and community leaders with an understandable source of information about what works, what does not work and what is promising in preventing crime.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203166698

This book focuses on the importance of incorporating both sociological and psychological viewpoints in the understanding of criminal behavior. It identifies and explains emerging criminal offenders within the criminal justice system, examining the individual differences that make different types of offenders unique.

Text supported with charts, tables and boxed inserts.

What Works in Corrections, first published in 2006, examines the impact of correctional interventions, management policies, treatment and rehabilitation programs on the recidivism of offenders and delinquents. The book reviews different strategies for reducing recidivism and describes how the evidence for effectiveness is assessed. Thousands of studies were examined in order to identify those of sufficient scientific rigor to enable conclusions to be drawn about the impact of various interventions, policies and programs on recidivism. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses were performed to further examine these results. This book assesses the relative effectiveness of rehabilitation programs (e.g., education, life skills, employment, cognitive behavioral), treatment for different types of offenders (e.g. sex offenders, batterers, juveniles), management and treatment of drug-involved offenders (e.g., drug courts, therapeutic communities, outpatient drug treatment) and punishment, control and surveillance interventions (boot camps, intensive supervision, electronic monitoring). Through her extensive research, MacKenzie illustrates which of these programs are most effective and why.

Crime prevention policy and practice is often far from objective. Instead of being based on scientific evidence, the crime policy agenda is sometimes driven by political ideology, anecdotal evidence and program favorites of the month. Evidence-Based Crime Prevention seeks to change this by comprehensively and rigorously assessing the existing scientific knowledge on the effectiveness of crime prevention programs internationally. Reviewing more than 600 scientific evaluations of programs intended to prevent crime in settings such as families, schools, labor markets, places and communities, this book grades programs on their validity using "the scientific methods scale." This collection, which brings together contributions from leading researchers in the field of crime prevention, will provide policy makers, researchers and community leaders with an understandable source of information about what works, what does not work and what is promising in preventing crime. The revised edition of this internationally renown and highly influential book contains an entirely new and up-to-date introductory chapter. This new chapter takes stock of important new developments that are helping to make crime prevention more rational and also sets out the contribution of this book to evidence-based crime prevention.

What Works in Corrections, first published in 2006, examines the impact of correctional interventions, management policies, treatment and rehabilitation programs on the recidivism of offenders and delinquents. The book reviews different strategies for reducing recidivism and describes how the evidence for effectiveness is assessed. Thousands of studies were examined in order to identify those of sufficient scientific rigor to enable conclusions to be drawn about the impact of various interventions, policies and programs on recidivism. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses were performed to further examine these results. This book assesses the relative effectiveness of rehabilitation programs (e.g., education, life skills, employment, cognitive behavioral), treatment for different types of offenders (e.g. sex offenders, batterers, juveniles), management and treatment of drug-involved offenders (e.g., drug courts, therapeutic communities, outpatient drug treatment) and punishment, control and surveillance interventions (boot camps, intensive supervision, electronic monitoring). Through her extensive research, MacKenzie illustrates which of these programs are most effective and why.