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

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

Edited 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. Content Type:Systematic Review

   Ravenous wolves revisited: a systematic review of offending concentration

   Numerous studies have established that crime is highly concentrated among a small group of offenders. These findings have guided the development of various crime prevention strategies. The underlying theme of ...

   Authors:Natalie N. Martinez, YongJei Lee, John E. Eck and SooHyun O

   Citation:Crime Science 2017 6:10

   Published on: 1 August 2017

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2. Content Type:Systematic Review

   How concentrated is crime among victims? A systematic review from 1977 to 2014

   Considerable research shows that crime is concentrated among a few victims. However, no one has systematically compared these studies to determine the level of concentration and its variation across studies. T...

   Authors:SooHyun O, Natalie N. Martinez, YongJei Lee and John E. Eck

   Citation:Crime Science 2017 6:9

   Published on: 26 July 2017

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3. Content Type:Systematic Review

   Compared to what? Estimating the relative concentration of crime at places using systematic and other reviews

   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

   Published on: 17 July 2017

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4. Content Type:Systematic Review

   A systematic review of tagging as a method to reduce theft in retail environments

   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

   Published on: 30 May 2017

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5. Content Type:Systematic Review

   How concentrated is crime at places? A systematic review from 1970 to 2015

   Despite the increasing awareness and interests about the importance of crime concentration at places, scholars have not comprehensively synthesized the body of evidence related to this thesis. We conduct a sys...

   Authors:YongJei Lee, John E. Eck, SooHyun O and Natalie N. Martinez

   Citation:Crime Science 2017 6:6

   Published on: 26 May 2017

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6. Content Type:Research

   Wildlife crime: a conceptual integration, literature review, and methodological critique

   Wildlife crime, including poaching and wildlife trafficking, threaten the existence of particular species. To date, research on wildlife crime has been primarily conducted by those with backgrounds in the biol...

   Authors:Justin Kurland, Stephen F. Pires, Sara C. McFann and William D. Moreto

   Citation:Crime Science 2017 6:4

   Published on: 28 April 2017

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7. Content Type:Research

   Drug supply networks: a systematic review of the organizational structure of illicit drug trade

   This study presents a systematic review of research using social network analysis to document the structure of organized crime groups involved in drug trafficking. Our first objective is to determine whether t...

   Authors:Gisela Bichler, Aili Malm and Tristen Cooper

   Citation:Crime Science 2017 6:2

   Published on: 31 January 2017

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