CEF | Improving Economic Evidence in Crime and Justice Evaluations

IPAA and the CEF had a discussion with Dr Mathew Manning from Australian National University.

Criminal justice policymakers, policing organisations and crime prevention practitioners use Cost-Benefit analysis (CBA) to assess the benefits of different interventions for reducing crime. This analysis can help select those strategies that represent the greatest return on investment.

Dr Manning outlined recent research undertaken by ‘The What Works Centre for Crime Reduction’ which shows that the available economic evidence is either non-existent or inadequate across a wide range of crime intervention types. Drawing on case studies, Dr Manning discussed the reasons for this non-existent or inadequate evidence. He discussed how crime scientists in Australia and the UK are working together to create a new generation of CBA tools which maximise the use of available data and leverage machine learning for crime prevention policy-making and evaluation.

Dr Matthew Manning Associate Professor  Australian National University

To view Dr Manning's powerpoint presentation, please click here. 

Dr Matthew Manning
T 61 2 6125 3880
E matthew.manning@anu.edu.au