Standard of Evaluations in Problem-Oriented Policing Projects: Good Enough? (From Evaluating Crime Reduction Initiatives, P 7-28, 2009, Johannes Knutsson and Nick Tilley, eds. -- See NCJ-227444)

• NCJ Number: 227445
• Author(s): Johannes Knutsson
• Date Published: 2009
• Length: 22 pages
• Sale Source: Criminal Justice Press/Willow Tree Press
• Publication Format: Book Chapter
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter reviews the early development of evaluations of the impact of problem-oriented policing (POP) projects and discusses what should be the standard for these evaluations.

Abstract

Early publications on POP did not deal with evaluation in any depth, since they were mainly concerned with describing and arguing for this new approach in addressing the underlying environmental and opportunity factors of particular crimes in specific geographical areas. Early experience with POP projects in the United Kingdom were not encouraging. Community police officers were often given the job of implementing POP principles. These officers mostly used conventional police methods and did not perform robust evaluations to determine their effectiveness. In other countries that implemented POP--including Sweden, Norway, and Denmark--effective evaluations did not occur. Since evaluations are technically demanding, requiring qualified persons is essential. This implies increased specialization in personnel selection, training, and specialization. Academia has not been good at producing evaluation researchers with the skills and attitudes the police need. There is a need for policing institutions to interact with academia in developing curricula that produce trained specialists in crime analysis and POP evaluation research. Regarding evaluation designs for POP projects, there are two practical reasons why the most common evaluation design is the one-group pretest-posttest design. The first pertains to the competence and perspective of practitioners, and the second involves feasibility. In examining award-winning POP projects, the author of this chapter found that most used this evaluation design; however, those who designed and assessed the POP projects were most often police officers who were not experienced or trained in designing and implementing POP projects with a view toward incorporating means and methods of collecting data that measured the intended outcomes of the projects. 9 notes and 39 references