Can Nonexperimental Studies Improve the Policy Relevance of Crime Prevention Research? Insights from Public-Area Video Surveillance Interventions

Critics of evidence-based crime prevention argue that extant research lacks insight into aspects of crime control and prevention that are critical to policymakers. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of programs require the use of experimental and quasi-experimental designs, and some scholars argue that relaxing that methodological criterion would result in a larger pool of studies that could better inform policy and practice. We test that proposition by using a comprehensive database of 160 evaluation studies of public-area video surveillance and measuring their policy relevance by looking for four specific factors: causal mechanisms, moderators, implementation, and economic costs. We find that studies incorporating experimental and high-quality quasi-experimental designs scored significantly higher than studies using less rigorous designs on three of the four dimensions. This suggests that adherence to a high standard of methodological rigor does not compromise the practical value of video surveillance research. We then discuss the implications of this finding.