Systematic review and meta-analysis of security

Abstract

The varying quality and immense volume of research relating to security highlights a challenge for policymakers and practitioners who want to improve decision-making by drawing on the empirical evidence. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have emerged as more objective techniques, compared to subjective narrative reviews, for identifying, screening and synthesising the findings of individual primary evaluations relevant to particular forms of security measures. The shift from subjective to objective analysis has resulted in an improved evidence-base summarising and estimating the overall impact(s) and identifying potential moderator(s). With a growing recognition of the benefits of these techniques, the field of security and crime prevention have benefited from their adoption resulting in better informed crime and justice policy. This chapter explains, in detail, the role of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and how the methods produce robust evidence regarding our knowledge of security and its effectiveness. We also illustrate the use of meta-analysis via a selection of security-related studies. Show more