For the "types of solutions", the Evidence Bank uses three international platforms that are regarded as international benchmarks for the production, analysis, and compilation of systematic reviews and meta-analyses relevant to the area of security and justice: Crime Solutions, from the Department of Justice (USA); Crime Reduction Toolkit, from the College of Policing (UK); and the Campbell Collaboration
The main objective of the Platform is to facilitate the access of decision makers in Latin America and the Caribbean to the best available scientific evidence on the effectiveness of existing citizen security and justice solutions.
In addition, we hope to provide a forum to strengthen a regional community of practice committed to the generation and application of existing evidences in the fields of citizen security and justice in the region.
The use of scientific evidence for public policy decision-making began more intensively in the area of public health, with studies that aimed to evaluate the causes of diseases and the results of certain drugs and vaccines to identify those solutions that really worked and did not cause serious side effects.
This form of decision making process was later expanded to different areas, such as agriculture, social development and education, always seeking to make these public policies more effective and efficient.
The works should be sent, without reference to the author's name, to our e-mail.
In general terms, scientific evidence is the result of studies elaborated according to the best scientific methods used in each area of knowledge with the objective of systematizing and analyzing the information in a documented and replicable way.
The creation of the Security and Justice Evidence Platform was possible thanks to the work of a network of IDB specialists and experts from the region and the world.
The initiative was led by Rodrigo Serrano-Berthet, together with a team formed by Alberto Kopittke, Fernando Cafferata, Gonzalo Croci, Rodrigo Pantoja and Sergio Britto Lima.
This is a Drug Treatment Court program for parents with substance use charges whose children are involved with the institutional foster care system. The goal is to encourage future planning by families, reduce the length of children’s stay in shelters, and increase the substance use treatment completion rate.
The program takes in participants authorized by the family court and offers a variety of services, such as treatment, support, and legal representation. The intervention is delivered in four phases: intensive, keeping pace, transition, and aftercare.
This is an electronic control program implemented in 1997 in the province of Buenos Aires. The country was a pioneer in Latin America in the use of this technology.
As an alternative to prisons, which suffer from overcrowding and precarious conditions, the program allows offenders to remain detained in their homes, being monitored by means of an anklet that transmits a signal to a receiver installed in the offender’s home.
This is a program to monitor adults with problems associated with drug abuse who have committed non-violent offenses or serious crimes. The objectives are to reduce recidivism, promote recovery from drug abuse, and improve reentry into the community.
The follow-up occurs through case management, with a focus on abstinence and clinical and legal supervision. This includes drug testing, sanctions based on compliance with the program, employment opportunities, education, housing, and family support.
This is a program to monitor adolescents with problems associated with substance use. The goal is to reduce drug abuse and criminal behavior, and to prevent the entry of these young individuals into the traditional justice system.
The intervention includes therapy sessions, supervision meetings, drug testing, relapse and recidivism prevention, reinsertion into the job market, family support, and access to other resources in the community.