MoCSSy/CSMG Colloquium "Computational Criminology and the Possibility of "Best Practices"

Abstract

This talk will cover in brief what seems to be a current focus on "evidence-based" policy development and evaluation practices within the general area of crime prevention and crime reduction. Chief among the issues to be discussed is the apparent rise of calls for evidence-based policy to establish "best practices", and, of course, its related concern, that being to find out "what works" in crime reduction and crime prevention. While I argue that much has to be done to improve our collective techniques to more accurately approach the validity and the reliability that academics, police agencies--and especially government officials--see as achievable in the name of best practices, the key to success, as I see it, is the blending of the more traditionally 'social' sciences with those that are more familiar with computational methods and analytic strategies.