Library Research Guides: Systematic reviews: Criminology

This page contains guidelines for how to conduct a systematic review in Criminology. This includes formal guidelines, protocol development and registration information, reporting standards, search construction and analysis, critical appraisal as well as recommended method books, chapters and papers.

For database and search translation advice, please see the following Library Research Guides:

Criminology & Forensic Psychology

Guidelines

Handbooks are comprehensive guides to conducting a systematic review from protocol development to reporting the results.

MECCIR Conduct Standards
Methodological Expectations of Campbell Collaboration Intervention Reviews (MECCIR) are standards for the conduct of Campbell systematic reviews of intervention effects.

Protocol development and registration

A review protocol defines the scope of a systematic review including the research question/s, populations, settings and outcomes. The search strategy for retrieving papers is also outlined in the protocol. Register your systematic review protocol to ensure your topic is not duplicated unknowingly by another researcher.

Open Science Framework (OSF)
Preregister your systematic review with OSF Registries.
Prospero
PROSPERO is an international database of prospectively registered systematic reviews in health and social care, welfare, public health, education, crime, justice, and international development, where there is a health-related outcome. If your review topic measures health-related outcomes, register your protocol with PROSPERO.

Reporting standards

Reporting standards aim to improve the standards of reporting in evidence synthesis. Utilising reporting standards will ensure all the relevant methodological information is included for the peer-review process.

MECCIR Reporting Standards
Methodological expectations of Campbell Collaboration intervention reviews: Reporting standards
Details the methodological expectations of the Campbell Collaboration in reviewing intervention effect. Includes an editable table to record and track methods in your study.
PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses)
PRISMA is an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. PRISMA primarily focuses on the reporting of reviews evaluating the effects of interventions, but can also be used as a basis for reporting systematic reviews with objectives other than evaluating interventions (e.g. evaluating aetiology, prevalence, diagnosis or prognosis). Includes checklists and PRISMA flow diagram templates.

Search construction and analysis

PRISMA-S for Searching
PRISMA-S is an extension to the PRISMA Statement for Reporting Literature Searches in Systematic Reviews. Use the checklist to ensure your literature search is adequately reported in your review document. Covers information sources and methods, search strategies, peer review and managing records.

Learn how to develop a database search that retrieves all the published literature on a research topic.

Searching for studies: A guide to information retrieval for Campbell Systematic Reviews.
A comprehensive guide to information sources, search planning, search strategies, reference management, text mining, and reporting and documenting the search.
PRESS Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies: 2015 Guideline Statement
Detailed recommendation on search strategies for systematic reviews. Includes checklist and practical advice.

Critical appraisal

Critical appraisal tools are frameworks used to evaluate the quality of studies included in your review. Decide how you will critically appraise the studies before you begin your review, and use them to inform the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

EMMIE
Introducing EMMIE: an evidence rating scale to encourage mixed-method crime prevention synthesis reviews
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Johnson, S.D., Tilley, N. & Bowers, K.J. Introducing EMMIE: an evidence rating scale to encourage mixed-method crime prevention synthesis reviews. J Exp Criminol 11, 459–473 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-015-9238-7
CASP Checklists
A set of eight critical appraisal tools that are designed to be used when reading research. CASP has appraisal checklists designed for use with Systematic Reviews, Randomised Controlled Trials, Cohort Studies, Case Control Studies, Economic Evaluations, Diagnostic Studies, Qualitative studies and Clinical Prediction Rule.
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Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (2022). CASP Checklists. https://casp-uk.net/casp-tools-checklists/

Methods books, chapters and papers

A selection of books, book chapters and research papers on systematic review methods in Criminology.

Meta-analysis
Chapter in Advanced Statistics in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Details the statistical procedures and outputs of a meta-analysis.
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Weisburd, D., Wilson, D.B., Wooditch, A., Britt, C. (2022). Meta-analysis. In: Advanced Statistics in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67738-1_11
Meta-analysis as a method of systematic reviews
A chapter from The Sage Handbook of Criminological Research Methods on meta-analysis in criminological research.
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Schmucker, M., & Lösel, F. (2012). Meta-analysis as a method of systematic reviews. In D. GaddS. Karstedt, & S. F. Messner The SAGE handbook of criminological research methods (pp. 425-443). SAGE Publications Ltd, https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446268285.n28
Unobtrusive methods: Secondary analysis, content analysis, crime mapping and meta-analysis
Chapter 9 in Snapshots of Research discusses the use of meta-analysis in criminology research.
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Hartley, R. D. (Ed.). (2010). Snapshots of research: Readings in criminology and criminal justice. SAGE Publications, Incorporated.
Meta-Analysis in Criminology and Criminal Justice: Challenging the Paradigm and Charting a New Path Forward
Meta-analyses are appearing more frequently in the criminological literature. Yet the methods typically used are guided by a methodological paradigm that risks producing meta-analyses of limited value. Here we outline three key methodological issues that meta-analysts face and we present a methodological challenge to the dominant meta-analysis paradigm. We focus specifically on: (1) inclusion criteria, (2) analysis of bivariate versus multivariate effect sizes, and (3) methods for handling statistical dependence. Issues of reproducibility and recommendations for moving forward are discussed.
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Jillian J. Turanovic & Travis C. Pratt (2021) Meta-Analysis in Criminology and Criminal Justice: Challenging the Paradigm and Charting a New Path Forward, Justice Evaluation Journal, 4:1, 21-47, DOI: 10.1080/24751979.2020.1775107
Systematic reviews in social policy evaluation
Chapter 6 in the Handbook of Social Policy Evaluation.
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Sundberg, T. (2017). "Chapter 6: Systematic reviews in social policy evaluation". In Handbook of Social Policy Evaluation. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Retrieved Jul 14, 2022, from https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781785363238/9781785363238.00012.xml