Evaluation in crime prevention

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Crime prevention and the question of the efficiency of delinquency preventive measures have a high priority in current political, societal and social debates. Therefore, an evaluation of the given prevention programs is constantly required. Here one speaks of evaluation in crime prevention .

definition

The term evaluation in crime prevention is made up of the two aspects evaluation and crime prevention .

The evaluation means the data-based analysis of individual projects with regard to their efficiency for all those involved and the associated evaluation of the concept.

The aim of crime prevention is to prevent the occurrence of criminal behavior in advance with the help of preventive programs (primary, secondary and tertiary) and thus to reduce the crime rate.

The evaluation in crime prevention therefore aims to determine analytically, based on data, facts and statistics, to what extent preventive concepts can in reality contain the occurrence of delinquency and evaluates them accordingly. Based on the evaluation, it can be seen whether a concept is profitable or whether it should be changed or completely removed from the catalog of preventive measures.

background

In the 1990s, when child and juvenile delinquency in particular increased dramatically, every new preventive measure was welcomed in politics and society. The thought that something is being done at all ( actionism ) displaced the question of the effectiveness and profitability of the individual concepts (symbolic crime prevention).

In connection with the annual results of the police crime statistics on criminals and their committed crimes in Germany, the need for an evaluation and assessment of individual prevention programs is growing. A systematic evaluation of the programs should be possible on the basis of minimum requirements that are placed on the methodical implementation of these evaluations (e.g. documentation, accompanying research, etc.). Knowledge is required that can say which measure is most likely to lead to success with which problem under which conditions.

Evaluation

Various people and groups are interested and involved in evaluating crime prevention projects.

Client

The clients primarily include federal ministries and ministries at state level, which focus on the areas of family, youth, education and social issues. Likewise, socio-educational state working groups or state associations can initiate an evaluation on the topic of crime prevention. On the other hand, on a smaller scale, municipal committees and offices (e.g. youth welfare office or employment office, police department, etc.) often act as clients. Not infrequently, however, it is also individual institutes or foundations that specialize in the subject area that commission an evaluation in crime prevention . These include, in particular, the Criminological and Criminological Research Center of the State Office of Criminal Investigation and the Lower Saxony Criminological Research Institute as well as the Foundation for Crime Prevention Münster and the Power for Peace eV association in Bavaria.

These criminological research institutes in particular often carry out such an evaluation themselves. Just as often, however, institutes for education (especially the areas of social education and further training), school education, sociology and educational research are responsible for carrying out an evaluation. In addition, it is not uncommon for authors from social science research centers or societies as well as scientific employees in various research institutions or workshops to take on this task.

target

The primary goal of the evaluation in crime prevention is to answer the question of the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures in individual facilities or of new outpatient measures. The availability of children and young people from socially disadvantaged areas or minors who have already committed offenses often plays a major role. Likewise, the quality assurance or improvement of special programs such as experiential education can be the focus of the evaluation, which should be brought about through professional reflection.

Types and methods

The evaluation in crime prevention can be divided into three phases.

1. Before the intervention, i. H. in program development. The program design is examined here. Often used terms are e.g. B. input, performative or proactive evaluation. 2. During the intervention phase as a control, correction and advisory function. Often used terms are e.g. B. formative, clarifying evaluation or accompanying research. 3. After completion of a crime preventive intervention to check the direct and indirect effects and thus the achievement of the goals (e.g. summative or impact evaluation).

Evaluation in crime prevention can therefore be aimed at researching programs, their process and / or their effects. In recent years, so-called meta-analyzes or meta-evaluations, which compare existing research with one another and generate new findings on a meta-level, have also played a major role. One could think of the Sherman Report or the Düsseldorf report.

In all of the above-mentioned types of evaluation in crime prevention, questionnaires are one of the most widely used methods and can be designed in different ways. On the one hand, two questionnaires, one before and one after the measure, can be distributed to the addressees; on the other hand, people can only be presented with one questionnaire at the end of the program. Long-term accompanying studies look much more diverse. For example, those affected can be classified into success levels at fixed annual intervals on the basis of certain criteria, with all those involved being subjected to a final analysis at the end. The use of text documentation, in which relevant data from existing written documents such as B. Interview recordings are filtered out.

Summary

The evaluation in crime prevention gained as a means of quality assurance , prevention planning and project management is becoming increasingly important in research. Nevertheless, supra-regional or international comparability and fundamentally standardized assessment procedures seem to be a long way off. However, it can be said that a first step in this direction has already been taken through funding commitments, methodological support and systematic documentation.

literature

  • Abel, Jürgen / Möller, Renate / Treumann, Klaus Peter: Introduction to empirical pedagogy. Floor plan of pedagogy , Volume 2, Dieter Baacke (ed.), Stuttgart 1998.
  • Workplace for child and juvenile crime prevention of the German Youth Institute (ed.): Evaluation in child and juvenile crime prevention - a documentation . Volume 9, Munich undated [approx. 2005]
  • Blinkert, Baldo / Güsewell, Uta / Spiegel, Jürgen: Municipal youth work and youth research - research with and about young people. Report on the FIFAS study on the situation of young people in Staufen on behalf of the SOS-Kinderdorf eV , series of publications by the Freiburg Institute for Applied Social Sciences, Volume 8, Herbolzheim 2003.
  • Höfler, Stefanie / Grüner, Thomas / Hilt, Franz / Käppler, Christoph: Evaluation in violence prevention - challenges for practice , o. O. o. J.
  • Kober, Marcus (MA), European Center for Crime Prevention eV: Impetus for Local Prevention Management - Preliminary Study , Foundation German Forum for Crime Prevention (ed.), Bonn 2005.
  • Merkens, Hans (ed.): Evaluation in educational science . Series of publications by the DgfE, Wiesbaden 2004.
  • Foundation of the German Forum for Crime Prevention (ed.): Impetus for local prevention management. Findings and recommendations for the organization and work of crime prevention committees at the municipal level - A guide for municipal practice , Bonn 2005.
  • Walsh, Maria / Pniewski, Benjamin / Kober, Marcus / Armborst, Andreas (eds.): Evidence-oriented crime prevention in Germany, Wiesbaden 2018.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Child and Juvenile Crime Prevention Unit . DJI Munich German Youth Institute. Accessed on April 2, 2019.
  2. ^ Coester, Marc / Bannenberg, Britta / Rössner, Dieter (2007): The German Criminological Evaluation Research in International Comparison. In: Lösel, Friedrich / Bender, Doris / Jehle, Jörg-Martin (eds.): Criminology and knowledge-based criminal policy: development and evaluation research. Mönchengladbach. Pp. 93-112
  3. ↑ Sherman, Lawrence W. (et al.) (1997): Preventing crime: What works, what doesn't, what's promising. College park. Online at: http://www.ncjrs.gov/works/index.htm
  4. ↑ Rössner, Dieter / Bannenberg, Britta / Coester, Marc (eds.) (2002): Düsseldorfer Expertachten: Empirically verified knowledge about crime preventive effects. Internet publication Düsseldorf: www.duesseldorf.de/download/dg.pdf