About this Research Topic
The last twenty-five years have witnessed the emergence of Evidence-Based Policing; a framework that helps police forces and wider criminal justice agencies prioritize resources and allocate those resources to the most efficient strategies for reducing crime and disorder. Evidence-Based strategies have gained more focus in the light of austerity measures and dwindling staff numbers.
Economic analysis encompasses a range of techniques, devised principally by economists, and applied by practitioners and researchers across disciplines to make informed, evidence-based decisions that yield optimal return. Given that police forces and criminal justice agencies are working with limited resources, they are required to make key decisions regarding where such resources might be best spent to achieve social outcomes and whether more could be achieved for the same or less investment. Unfortunately, there is often limited information on the costs and benefits associated with policing initiatives and this can hamper evidence-based decisions about where best to allocate limited resources.
In UK and Australian policing contexts, economic analysis forms a key part of the EMMIE (Economic cost, Mechanism, Moderator, Implementation, Effect) evaluation framework proposed by the ‘What Works Centre for Crime Reduction’. Using the EMMIE framework, and related ‘Manning Cost-Benefit Tool’, practitioners and researchers can improve their understanding of cost calculations and start to compare alternative initiatives in terms of which is likely to achieve the greatest economic and social value. Despite such innovation and national steer, academic publication of economic studies has been relatively slow to emerge.
There are a number of compounding problems. One problem is that economic analysis is commissioned internally or locally and published in the grey literature rather than academic journals. A second problem is that researchers are often asked to consider cost implications of new police initiatives where it may be too early to establish causality or benefits. As more established, advanced economic techniques cannot be applied, this pilot work often remains unpublished. A third problem is that, even when economic evaluation research is published, it is inherently inter-disciplinary and so articles are published in journals across domains. Consequently, these compounding problems make it more difficult for practitioners and researchers to draw on past research, innovative approaches, and economic models. This may lead them to approach calculations in idiosyncratic ways, rather than relying upon an accumulated evidence base, making future comparisons across studies and domains more problematic.
The aim of this inter-disciplinary special issue is to showcase economic analysis taking place in policing and criminal justice contexts, both established and innovative techniques. It encourages submission of original research, systematic review, methods, review, mini review and perspective articles that help contribute a more robust evidence base along with demonstrating innovation in the following areas:
- Illustrating cost-savings analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, cost-benefit analysis, or social value in criminal justice contexts;
- Helping to establish economic frameworks or models that could be beneficial to other researchers;
- Contributing to the debate on how best to calculate ‘costs’ and ‘benefits’ in criminal justice contexts.
Economic analysis encompasses a range of techniques, devised principally by economists, and applied by practitioners and researchers across disciplines to make informed, evidence-based decisions that yield optimal return. Given that police forces and criminal justice agencies are working with limited resources, they are required to make key decisions regarding where such resources might be best spent to achieve social outcomes and whether more could be achieved for the same or less investment. Unfortunately, there is often limited information on the costs and benefits associated with policing initiatives and this can hamper evidence-based decisions about where best to allocate limited resources.
In UK and Australian policing contexts, economic analysis forms a key part of the EMMIE (Economic cost, Mechanism, Moderator, Implementation, Effect) evaluation framework proposed by the ‘What Works Centre for Crime Reduction’. Using the EMMIE framework, and related ‘Manning Cost-Benefit Tool’, practitioners and researchers can improve their understanding of cost calculations and start to compare alternative initiatives in terms of which is likely to achieve the greatest economic and social value. Despite such innovation and national steer, academic publication of economic studies has been relatively slow to emerge.
There are a number of compounding problems. One problem is that economic analysis is commissioned internally or locally and published in the grey literature rather than academic journals. A second problem is that researchers are often asked to consider cost implications of new police initiatives where it may be too early to establish causality or benefits. As more established, advanced economic techniques cannot be applied, this pilot work often remains unpublished. A third problem is that, even when economic evaluation research is published, it is inherently inter-disciplinary and so articles are published in journals across domains. Consequently, these compounding problems make it more difficult for practitioners and researchers to draw on past research, innovative approaches, and economic models. This may lead them to approach calculations in idiosyncratic ways, rather than relying upon an accumulated evidence base, making future comparisons across studies and domains more problematic.
The aim of this inter-disciplinary special issue is to showcase economic analysis taking place in policing and criminal justice contexts, both established and innovative techniques. It encourages submission of original research, systematic review, methods, review, mini review and perspective articles that help contribute a more robust evidence base along with demonstrating innovation in the following areas:
- Illustrating cost-savings analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, cost-benefit analysis, or social value in criminal justice contexts;
- Helping to establish economic frameworks or models that could be beneficial to other researchers;
- Contributing to the debate on how best to calculate ‘costs’ and ‘benefits’ in criminal justice contexts.
Keywords: Evidence Based Policing, economic evaluation, cost savings, cost effectiveness, cost utility, cost benefit, costs of crime, social value, unit costs, QALY, crime harm Index, EMMIE
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