Abstract
For more than 30 years researchers have been moving away from subjective narrative reviews to inform decision-making, and adopting more objective techniques such as systematic reviews and meta-analysis. The shift from subjective to objective analysis has resulted in an improved evidence base. This improvement has arguably led to better decisions because objective evidence is made available that contains less bias. Moreover, the extant literature is captured and analysed to produce scientific evidence regarding the issue or problem at hand. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are now a matter of course in health, education and psychology, but have only recently been adopted and used to inform crime and justice policy. This chapter explains, in detail, the role of systematic reviews and meta-analysis, and how the methods produce scientific evidence regarding our knowledge of security and its effectiveness. A discussion regarding the pros and cons of these methods is provided based on the author’s experience in publishing (Manning et al., 2010; Mazerolle et al., 2013) and reviewing meta-analyses. A general discussion of the meta-analytic technique is provided using a case study of street lighting in the United States. Street lighting was selected as an example because it is a topic of interest to those studying and practising security. Further, the meta-analysis conducted by Welsh and Farrington (2008b) is a good example of a high-quality application of the method. This example also demonstrates the utility of meta-analysis and its importance in decision-making and policy development in the area of security and more generally crime science.
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© 2014 Matthew Manning
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Manning, M. (2014). Improving the Evidence Base in Security: Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis. In: Gill, M. (eds) The Handbook of Security. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-67284-4_26
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-67284-4_26
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