The Roskilde School of Governance and the Safe City Secretariat of Copenhagen have launched a two-year research and development project supported by the Danish Crime Prevention Council. The project will develop, test, use and evaluate a criteria-based measuring instrument for measuring the degree of collaboration, innovation and effectiveness of crime prevention initiatives targeting adolescents and young adults. The project will generate rigorous research-based knowledge about the interrelations between collaboration, innovation and effectiveness of public services, which can be used for optimizing and prioritizing crime prevention initiatives in Danish municipalities. Furthermore, it will produce a practical tool for continuous evaluation and self-assessment, which can support the continued efforts of project managers and frontline employees to design and implement interdisciplinary, inventive and efficacious public services.
The measurement instrument is developed and tested during the autumn of 2015. During the spring of 2016 it is applied to a set of 30-40 projects in Copenhagen. Following the quantitative data collection and preliminary data analysis, a number of qualitative case studies of typical and atypical cases are conducted during the fall of 2016. In the spring of 2017 a conference is organized where the final measuring instrument is presented, its practical applicability is demonstrated, and the implications of the analysis for the further development of crime prevention initiatives targeting youth and young adults are discussed.
The project is led by Professor Jacob Torfing and carried out with PhD Fellow Andreas Hagedorn Krogh and Associate Professor Anders Ejrnæs.