Societies of Criminology Key Issues Conference

‘What Works in Reducing Crime’ 
Paris May 13-15th 2004

ICPC organized two panels at the recent Societies of Criminology conference in Paris.  The panels Challenging Orthodoxy I & II: International Perspectives on What Works in Crime Prevention were concerned with the international implications of the current focus on effective practice in crime prevention - the ‘what works’ debate. Many of the panels presented examples of effective practice in criminal justice in their own countries, and there were fewer which focused on primary prevention initiatives, or on the challenges of transferring models from one country to another, or using models developed in the north for countries in the south.

The conference was co-sponsored by some 30 organizations and societies of criminology around the world, including ICPC. The key issue was: ‘What works in reducing crime’.  It was attended by 356 people from 31 countries. The conference was organized by the American Society of Criminology, and a full list of participants and copies of all abstracts can be found on their web-site. It is hoped to organize a second conference in 2006.

ICPC Panel I included:
Margaret Shaw (ICPC): What are the issues? Gold standards, good practice and local contexts.

Patrick Burton  & Eric Pelser (National Statistics Office Malawi): Rethinking partnerships in crime prevention.

Nicolas Florquin & Keith Krause (Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva): The Use of the 2004 Small Arms Survey. (For further information about the Small Arms Survey 2004, please visit www.smallarmssurvey.org).

Tim Hope (University of Keele, UK): Pretend it doesn’t work: The anti-social bias in the Campbell Collaboration Evaluation Protocol. 

Panel II included:
Benoit Dupont (University of Montreal, Canada):
Evaluating and transferring the Zwelethemba model of conflict resolution: challenges and strategies.

Sebastien Roché (Université de Grenoble, France): L’évaluation en France: les motifs pour en pas l’adopter.

Daniel Sansfacon (ICPC): Des chiffres et des mots: ou la nécessité de la traduction.

Abstracts of all papers presented at these two panels are available here.