Enabling partnership work in crime reduction: tales from the trenches of evidence-based policy

Abstract

English The field of crime control is undergoing radical reform in the UK, as are all public services. This article addresses two trends that are central to the modernisation agenda: the shift to partnership working and the use of empirical evidence to inform policy making and practice. It evaluates the potential of geographical information systems to support strategic decision making in the context of local crime reduction partnerships, which were established on a national basis by the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act. A number of salient multi-agency data-sharing initiatives have been launched over recent years, and this study focuses on the experience of one such project (Multi-agency Data Exchange [MADE]) in Lancashire, which was set up to provide a county-wide information brokerage for Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships. The power of spatial coding to integrate data from disparate partner agencies will be of particular interest. The potential of MADE’s evidence base to provide sophisticated criminological analysis is demonstrated through two case studies. Much of this potential has, however, gone unexploited, as will be shown. The article concludes with some methodological reflections on the problems of developing multi-agency information systems, the lessons to be learned from successful projects such as MADE, and the general barriers to evidence-based methods in practical policy making.