Evidence based practice

ANALYSIS: With America facing a continuing surge in violent crime, the Council on Criminal Justice established its Violent Crime Working Group, bringing together 16 leaders from law enforcement, public health, academia and community initiatives to identify solutions to the growth in violence; below is the Group’s 10-point, evidence-backed, short-term action plan to reverse the trend and promote peace in the streets.

FEATURE: Amid concerns that officers experiencing the mental health impact of critical firearms incidents were not receiving enough ‘return to work’ support, New Zealand Police have a adopted a peer-led approach to post-incident reintegration; Dr Anna Sutton of the University of Waikato explained to delegates at the recent Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing (ANZSEBP) Conference how ongoing research to evaluate the programme could help to improve reintegration for affected officers.

OPINION: The UK has a lengthy tradition of problem-oriented policing (POP), but the enthusiasm for this long-term preventative approach has waxed and waned, and with it the impact of POP overall; however Professor Nick Tilley, a keen advocate, believes that a renewed commitment to the problem-solving mentality can reap benefits in enabling forces to meet many of the modern policing challenges.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Policing Insight has a wide range of fantastic resources to support your degree study – and many students will already have free subscriber access via their academic institution or police force subscription.

Feature: To maximise the chances of success for evidence-based policing strategies, the implementation phase should be active and planned rather than left to chance. Continuing our coverage of the 2021 Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence Based Policing Conference, Policing Insight's deputy editor Sarah Gibbons reports on where the focus should lie to offer new interventions the best chance of being embedded as 'business as usual'.

FEATURE: New Zealand Police have worked with Australia’s Griffith University to take a critical look at their command and control processes, and improve understanding of good leadership and effective management; speaking at the Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing (ANZSEBP) Conference, Assistant Commissioner Tusha Penny and Professor Justin Ready outlined the findings of their work, and plans to share best practice and lessons learned across the organisation.

FEATURE: Over the last 40 years American crime rates have fallen significantly – yet so too have levels of trust and confidence in policing; speaking at this year’s Australia and New Zealand Society for Evidence-Based Policing Conference, Professor Tom Tyler, Founding Director of Yale Law School’s Justice Collaboratory, outlined the opportunity for a new approach to US policing, and how evidence could be used to support that shift, as Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter reports

FEATURE: Speaking at the launch of this year’s Australia and New Zealand Society for Evidence-Based Policing Annual Conference, Society President Supt David Cowan encouraged officers and staff to lead evidence-based policing “that will make a difference”, and highlighted the “slowly shifting relationship” between policing and academia, reports Policing Insight Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: The resurgence in outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) in Australia and around the world has highlighted the need for a better understanding of their criminal activities; Dr Christopher Dowling of the Australian Institute of Criminology – a speaker at this week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference – outlines the work of the Serious and Organised Crime Research Laboratory, and its crime science approach to the criminal activity of OMCGs.

ANALYSIS: Crime prevention programmes in many countries often adopt a blanket approach to communities, with little regard to race or culture; ahead of next week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference, researchers Dr Kabir Dasgupta, Dr André Diegmann, Professor Tom Kirchmaier and Dr Alexander Plum discuss their latest study which highlights the role of ethnicity in the criminal behaviour of young fathers, and suggests that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy response to crime reduction is likely to fail.

FEATURE: The volume and accessibility of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) has increased considerably in recent years, prompting concerns from police, legislators and the public; ahead of next week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference, Dr Rick Brown, Deputy Director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, outlines some of the key research and initiatives already underway to reduce CSAM in the future.

FEATURE: Targeting family violence and gender-driven crimes is a challenge for law enforcement around the world; ahead of next week’s Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence-Based Policing Conference, Lauren Callaway, Assistant Commissioner of Family Violence Command for Victoria Police, outlines some of the key steps taken by the force – both in its approach to crimes in the community, and in tackling issues within the organisation – to make people safer.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: The 2021 Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence Base Policing (ANZSEBP) Conference is taking place online on 17th August with the theme of "Policing Under Scrutiny: Leadership, Legitimacy and the Role of Evidence". ANZSEBP Vice President and Deputy Chief Executive: Insights and Deployment at New Zealand Police, Mark Evans invites delegates from around the world to attend.

ANALYSIS: A number of forces across the UK have introduced embedded mental health professionals to improve and support the police response to those in crisis, and perceptions of such initiatives have been positive; now a new study by the N8 Policing Research Partnership has formally evaluated the West Yorkshire Police project, with impressive results, as Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter reports.

FEATURE: Continuing a new series of The Police Student, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly explores the key issue of ‘What is policing?’ In this article she looks at a range of models that have been used to try to represent or modify how policing works in different countries, and also examines the leading contemporary model of Evidence-Based Policing.

FEATURE: In our continuing series supporting new police degree entry recruits, Policing Insight’s Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly takes a final look at evidence-based policing, and the challenges of taking EBP forwards from research theory to embedded, applied practice within policing organisations.