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Why do criminal investigations fail?
Cited study is Rossmo, D. K., Bouchard, M., & Summers, L. (2025). Criminal Investigative Failures: A Network Analysis. Justice Quarterly, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2025.2594189 Read it here:
Jerry Ratcliffe
7 days ago1 min read


Limits of police de-escalation training
The cited work is: McLean, K., Bussey, T., Nix, J., Rojek, J., & Alpert, G. P. (2026). Police de-escalation training and its effects on communication: Evidence from an experimental evaluation. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004723522600005X You can read the CrimRxiv Consortium pre-print of the work publicly available here .
Jerry Ratcliffe
Apr 161 min read


Offender focus in the Philadelphia Policing Tactics Experiment
The particular paper under discussion is: Groff, ER, Ratcliffe, JH, Haberman, CP, Sorg, ET, Joyce, N and Taylor, RB (2015) Does what police do at hot spots matter? The Philadelphia Policing Tactics Experiment, Criminology, 53(1): 23-53. It is open access here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1745-9125.12055 There are some more results and details at this site: https://www.jerryratcliffe.net/philadelphia-predictive-polic
Jerry Ratcliffe
Apr 131 min read


Business curfews to reduce crime
The cited study is Nazzari, M., Calaresu, M. & Triventi, M. No sales after midnight: evaluating the impact of a business curfew on drug-related crime in San Francisco’s tenderloin. Security Journal, 39, 5 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41284-025-00517-w
Jerry Ratcliffe
Apr 121 min read


California's zero-dollar bail policy
The cited study is Heflin, J., McCannon, B.C. (2026) The Impact of California’s Zero Dollar Bail Policy On Crime. Am J Crim Just (2026). You can access it here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-025-09880-1
Jerry Ratcliffe
Mar 121 min read


Boston Operation Ceasefire
There has been a great deal written about Boston's Operation Ceasefire, but the original evaluation is at BRAGA, A. A., KENNEDY, D. M., WARING, E. J., & PIEHL, A. M. (2001). Problem-Oriented Policing, Deterrence, and Youth Violence: An Evaluation of Boston’s Operation Ceasefire. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency , 38 (3), 195-225. It is online here .
Jerry Ratcliffe
Mar 21 min read


Policing crime hotspots on buses
The cited paper is Hubbard-Chason, T., Ariel, B., Assaraf, N., & Harinam, V. (2025). Reducing Crime on London Buses: A Randomised Controlled Trial on Moving Hotspots. Police Quarterly . It is open access and available here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10986111251392931
Jerry Ratcliffe
Feb 251 min read


What is vicarious deterrence?
The referenced study is Ariel, Barak, Ashley Englefield, and John Denley. ""I Heard It through the Grapevine": A Randomized Controlled Trial on the Direct and Vicarious Effects of Preventative Specific Deterrence Initiatives in Criminal Networks." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 109, no. 4 (2019): 819-67. A full copy of the article is available.
Jerry Ratcliffe
Feb 201 min read


Upgrading street lights reduces crime
The study mentioned is: MacDonald, J. M., Chalfin, A., Moritz, M., Wade, B., Mendlein, A. K., Braga, A. A., & South, E. (2025). Can...
Jerry Ratcliffe
Feb 51 min read


Does domestic violence counseling work?
The cited paper is: Musodza, W., Khajehei, M., McLaughlin, K. et al. Counseling Interventions to Reduce Domestic Violence Against Women: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials. Journal of Family Violence (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-025-01009-6
Jerry Ratcliffe
Jan 221 min read


Integrated Offender Management (IOM)
Some details from a relatively recent systematic review can be found in Hadfield, E., Sleath, E., Brown, S., & Holdsworth, E. (2020). A systematic review into the effectiveness of Integrated Offender Management. Criminology & Criminal Justice , 21 (5), 650-668. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895820912295 A copy of the article is here:
Jerry Ratcliffe
Jan 221 min read


Recruiting more women into policing
The paper cited is: Travis A Taniguchi, Jennifer R Rineer, Katherine Hoogesteyn, Sean Wire, Lauren Mangum (2023) Recruiting women into policing: Experimentally testing the effectiveness of recruiting materials, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice , 17, 2023, paad049, https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paad049 It can be downloaded here .
Jerry Ratcliffe
Jan 221 min read


Real Time Crime Center aided investigations
The reel is based on Guerette, Rob T., and Kimberly Przeszlowski (2023) " Does the Rapid Deployment of Information to Police Improve...
Jerry Ratcliffe
Dec 18, 20251 min read


Police-led diversion systematic review
Full details of the systematic review for the Campbell Collaboration are in: Wilson, D. B., Brennan, I., & Olaghere, A. (2018)....
Jerry Ratcliffe
Dec 18, 20251 min read


Preventing mass violence attacks
The cited research is recently published here in open access . The citation is Cilke, T. R. R., Williams, M. M., Jones, N. T., Gibson, K. A., & Gray, A. E. (2025). Breaking the silence: Bystander reporting to law enforcement disrupts individuals moving toward targeted violence. Law and Human Behavior . Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000630
Jerry Ratcliffe
Dec 8, 20251 min read


Why do officers leave policing?
Or more accurately, why officers 'think' about leaving policing. The easiest way to access a concise report on this reel is via the IACP . The full study available here is: Jacqueline M Drew, Elise Sargeant, Sherri Martin (2024) Why do police consider leaving the profession?: The interplay between job demand stress, burnout, psychological distress, and commitment, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice , Volume 18, 2024, paae036, https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paae036
Jerry Ratcliffe
Nov 30, 20251 min read


Did the NYPD's Operation Impact surge work?
The study cited is MacDonald J, Fagan J, Geller A (2016) The Effects of Local Police Surges on Crime and Arrests in New York City. PLoS ONE 11(6): e0157223. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157223 The research study is open access so you can read the entire research report here .
Jerry Ratcliffe
Nov 23, 20251 min read


Do police legitimacy interventions work?
Lorraine Mazerolle and colleagues undertook a systematic review of police-led legitimacy interventions to see if they had the desired outcome. The full citation is: Mazerolle, L., Bennett, S., Davis, J., Sargeant, E. and Manning, M. (2013), Legitimacy in Policing: A Systematic Review. Campbell Systematic Reviews , 9: i-147. https://doi.org/10.4073/csr.2013.1 You can read the entire study here , as it is open access.
Jerry Ratcliffe
Nov 17, 20251 min read


Do crime prevention letters work?
The full study is available online and open access , and is Hodgkinson, W., Assaraf, N., Ariel, B., & Sutherland, A. (2025). Burglary...
Jerry Ratcliffe
Nov 9, 20251 min read


Kansas City Preventive Policing Experiment
Source: Kelling, G. L., Pate, T., Dieckman, D., & Brown, C. E. (1974). The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment: A Summary Report ....
Jerry Ratcliffe
Nov 2, 20251 min read
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