Impact evaluation – Crime policies

All governments make decisions on a small or large scale, many times based on some employee's previous knowledge or beliefs. Often these beliefs are not based on scientific arguments, but are the result of political practice or general knowledge.

One of the main problems in developing countries is not the lack of resources to make policies, but the lack of understanding to create and execute the correct policies. Also, what works in some contexts does not necessarily work in the same way in another context, and if it is practical to replicate, it may possibly not have the same positive effects or may even have contrary effects. For all these reasons, impact evaluation and experimentation are very effective management tools for public policies and a way to improve the effectiveness of public initiatives.

With the PILAR (Policies, Innovation, Learning, and Results) initiative, CAF is helping public sector authorities in several countries in the region to evaluate the impact of their initiatives. To mention a few examples in criminology:

• Colombia: in 2010 the National Police launched the "Community Policing Plan" program in 8 metropolitan areas, which consists of officer-patrolmen mediating and speaking to citizens during conflicts, and collaborating in their civilian empowerment. To date, 9,000 officials were trained in soft skills. The evaluation shows that the training was instrumental in the reduction of crime in certain areas.
• Argentina: the Federal Police developed a training program to improve police practices and increase the safety of officer-patrolmen and the community. The PILAR initiative helped to carry out an experimental evaluation of the impact of the program on the policeman's attitude regarding his/her safety in risky situations and the use of firearms.
• Venezuela: the Mayor's Office in Sucre (second largest municipal district in Caracas, with a population of 1 million) implemented the "Hot Spots" program to identify the most unsafe areas and reduce crime and homicides. Eighty percent of the crimes occur in just 6% of the municipal territory. Using geo-positioning and other tools, greater precision of the hot spots exists.

The general objective of the PILAR initiative is to contribute and promote a culture in the development of public policies based on empirical evidence, social experimentation, and impact evaluation to improve policies.

To read the complete article in Spanish, click here..