Applying an empirically derived effect size distribution to benchmark the practical magnitude of interventions to reduce recidivism in the USA

The purpose of this study was to apply an empirically derived effect size distribution to benchmark the practical magnitude of interventions aimed at reducing recidivism at the individual level. The authors conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of crime intervention evaluations. To establish a framework for benchmarking the magnitude of these interventions, they generated means, medians, tertiles, and interquartile ranges from these analyses. Overall, the results from the study reported here have several important implications for the crime prevention field. Most importantly, the study provided evidence that the tradition of using generalized guidelines for interpreting effect sizes as small, medium, or large should be avoided given that they are devoid of context and ignore important variations in effects across interventions and outcomes. Moreover, this study provided an alternative framework to benchmark the practical magnitude of crime intervention programs aimed at reducing recidivism at the individual level. Publisher Abstract Provided