For information on how to navigate the map scroll to the section "How to Navigate the map"

How was this map created?

Overview

This map shows the literature on evaluations of interventions that target gang violence in primary studies. It aims to show the research evidence and interventions that are available; it does not include an in-depth synthesis of findings.

Which research questions does the map address?
The map aims to address the following questions:

RQ1: What are the characteristics of the interventions that target gang violence evaluated in primary research?

RQ2: Is there a significant additional corpus of comprehensive intervention research on gang crime to systematically review in-depth?

Searches

This is an update of a previous iteration of this map (Hodgkinson et al., 2009)

A date limit was applied across the searches of 2005 onwards (i.e., 2004 or earlier) to capture all studies published since the original searches were undertaken in 2006; papers from the original map meeting the refined design inclusions criteria (see below) were included (the previous review included protocols, overviews etc whilst the current review focused on evaluations of interventions).

Eligibility criteria for the map

To be included in the map papers needed to meet the following criteria:

Topic: Investigate the effectiveness of gang interventions. We were very inclusive, including papers that used gang related terms anywhere in the paper.

Type of prevention: primary, secondary, tertiary.

Intervention: The definition was very inclusive including all types of interventions delivered nationally or locally on a long or short-term basis.

Study design: Evaluations of interventions

Outcomes: Quantitative outcomes including measures of criminal justice (e.g., homicide rates, stabbings, shootings); associated behaviours and beliefs (e.g., delinquency; pro-social behaviours; perceptions of safety); public health (e.g., physical and mental health such as health behaviours, length of hospital stay, substance misuse); education (primarily school related), socio-economic (including employment, housing and other economic outcomes); and cost of intervention.

Language: Be published in English

Participants: There were no restrictions

Comparators: There were no restrictions

Data extraction
The following information was extracted from each paper that met the eligibility criteria:

Reference details

Availability of full text

Year of publication

Country

Type of prevention: primary, secondary, tertiary

Intervention strategies: Modified version of tool used in Hodgkinson et al. (2009) – see glossary for details

Inclusion of criminal justice and/or social improvement intervention elements: Modified version of tool used in Hodgkinson et al. (2009) – see glossary for details

Assessment of intervention as comprehensive: an intervention was considered comprehensive if it included a combination of criminal justice and social improvement elements or more than one distinct type of social improvement as defined in the Hodgkinson et al. (2009) typology. Interventions that did not go beyond the criminal justice system were not categorised as comprehensive. The few interventions that did not fit into our conceptual framework of interventions were assessed for comprehensiveness on an ad hoc basis.

Study design: comparison group design, no comparison group design

Outcome(s): criminal justice, behaviours and beliefs, public health, education, socio-economic, cost and cost/benefit of intervention, other quantitative outcomes.

Other population markers: Modified version of tool used in Hodgkinson et al. (2009) – see glossary for details

Who funded this map?
This work is funded by the NIHR (PHR Reference Number: NIHR129814). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

Conflicts of interest
There were no conflicts of interest in the creation of this map.

Contributions
The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the EPPI-Centre or the funders. Responsibility for the views expressed remains solely with the authors.

(c) Copyright
Authors of the systematic reviews and maps on the EPPI-Centre website (http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk) hold the copyright for the text of their reviews and maps. The EPPI-Centre owns the copyright for all material on the website it has developed, including the contents of the databases, manuals, and keywording and data-extraction systems. The centre and authors give permission for users of the site to display and print the contents of the site for their own non commercial use, providing that the materials are not modified, copyright and other proprietary notices contained in the materials are retained, and the source of the material is cited clearly following the citation details provided. Otherwise users are not permitted to duplicate, reproduce, re-publish, distribute, or store material from this website without express written permission.

How to navigate the map

View and filter the appearance of the map
The size of the circles reflects the number of citations within each cell (grey square); with larger cells representing more citations.

It is possible to filter the view of the map by clicking on the 'Filters' tab and selecting one or more sub-groups within the following categories: 1) outcomes; 2) other population characteristics; 3) type of prevention or 4) publication date.

Please Note: The default mode is set to 'OR' when selecting more than one sub-group within a category and ‘AND’ when selecting sub-groups across categories .

These default settings can be changed using the filtering selection mode and clicking 'update'

Explore citations within the map

Click on any cell to view a list of citations represented in that cell.
Click on a column or row header to view all the citations represented in that row or column.

To view the full set of citations, click on the 'view records' tab on the banner above the map. From here it is possible to filter the citations in two ways:

1) The filters on the left side correspond to the rows and columns in the map which can be selected or de-selected to view the citations in these cells.
2) The options on the top right banner enables the user to search by word or phrase in the title, abstract or author fields of the citation.

References within the map
Each citation includes links to help the user locate an online citation with the possibility of viewing an abstract or full-text (where open access or subscription paywalls permit). Because of copyright reasons, abstracts cannot be displayed within the map.

Glossary
For more information about the intervention, population and outcome categories, click here.

Please cite the map as follows:

Richardson, M., Newman, M; Berry, G; Stansfield, C; Coombe, A; Hodgkinson, J. (in press). A systematic evidence map of evaluations of interventions to reduce gang related violence. Journal of Experimental criminology.