EUCPN Mythbuster: Will innovation also lead to progress?

Many of the prevention initiatives that are currently being implemented are not evidence-based, meaning that it is unclear how they operate, whether they are effective and which elements cause these effects. This is partly due to the importance of being innovative. Many policy-makers and prevention workers want to do ground-breaking work when it comes to preventing crime, and some think that innovation cannot be achieved within evidence-based initiatives. Yet novelty does not have to be encouraged at the expense of reliability. This paper demonstrates how replication can be integrated with innovation and equally contribute to evidence-based crime prevention.

Publication: August 2024, EUCPN Secretariat