Effectiveness of treatment in reducing drug-related crime

A systematic review

The principal objective of drug treatment programs is usually to reduce drug use. But do such programs also reduce crime?

The publication can not be ordered

A reliable overview

Finding one´s bearings in relation to a constantly growing body of research and drawing one´s own conclusions is often difficult. This also applies to research on the effects produced by measures intended to combat crime. Systematic reviews are one means of helping people to pick their way through the jungle of research findings. Systematic reviews combine a number of evaluations that are considered to satisfy a list of empirical criteria for measuring effects as reliably as possible. The results of these evaluations are then used to calculate and produce an overall picture of the effects that a given measure does and does not produce.

Systematic reviews thus aim to systematically combine the results from a number of studies in order to produce a more reliable overview of the opportunities and limitations associated with a given crime prevention strategy.

The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) has initiated the publication of a series of systematic reviews, in the context of which internationally renowned researchers are commissioned to perform the studies on our behalf. In this study, the authors have carried out a systematic review of the effects of drug treatment programs on crime which is based on 75 evaluations.