Interventions to prevent criminal behaviour among offenders are vital in modern society´s criminal policies. A number of programs have been implemented and some of them focus on violent offenders specifically. But how well do they work? What does the research tell us?
Finding one’s bearings in relation to a constantly growing body of research and drawing one’s own conclusions is often difficult. This also applies to research on the effects produced by measures intended to combat crime. Systematic reviews are one means of helping people to pick their way through the jungle of research findings. Systematic reviews combine a number of evaluations that are considered to satisfy a list of empirical criteria for measuring effects as reliably as possible. The results of these evaluations are then used to calculate and produce an overall picture of the effects that a given measure does and does not produce. Systematic reviews aim to systematically combine the results from a number of studies in order to produce a more reliable overview of the opportunities and limitations associated with a given crime prevention strategy.