Combining Campbell Standards and the Realist Evaluation Approach The Best of Two Worlds?

• Published in: The American journal of evaluation Vol. 29; no. 1; pp. 48 - 57
• Main Authors: van der Knaap, Leontien M., Leeuw, Frans L., Bogaerts, Stefan, Nijssen, Laura T. J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.03.2008
• Subjects: Crime Prevention; Criminology; Evaluation; Evaluation Methods; Evaluation Research; Prevention; Program Descriptions; Program Development; Program Improvement; Program Validation; Research Methodology; Review (Reexamination); Social Psychology; Violence; systematic reviews; criminology; mechanisms; realist evaluation; Campbell Collaboration standards
• ISSN: 1098-2140; 1557-0878
• DOI: 10.1177/1098214007313024

This article presents an approach to systematic reviews that combines the Campbell Collaboration Crime and Justice standards and the realist notion of contexts-mechanisms-outcomes (CMO) configurations. Both approaches have their advantages and drawbacks, and the authors will make a case for combining both approaches to profit from their advantages without having to deal with their separate weaknesses. They proceed to discuss how their approach should be put into practice and illustrate its use by giving a concise description of an example from their own work on the effects of prevention of violence. The authors conclude with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of their suggested approach and state that combining Campbell standards and the realist evaluation approach should be done more often.