As of October 1st, Stijn Ruiter is appointed endowed chair of Evidence-Based Policing at the department of Criminology at VU Amsterdam.
Evidence-based policing has been on the rise since the late 1990s, and is an approach to explicitly base decision-making on police practices and policies on the best available evidence. Scientific research contributes to this by focusing on the question of how policing works, in what circumstances it works, and for whom – and by whom – it works.
Ruiter conducts scientific research into evidence-based policing, with a focus on the effectiveness of interventions. He will evaluate the effects of such police interventions with systematic literature studies, meta-analyses and (quasi-)experimental designs. Ruiter also pays attention to mechanisms, moderators, implementation and economics as emphasized in the so-called EMMIE framework. He works closely with police professionals and also contributes to the training of students and early career researchers.
The special chair fits in seamlessly with Ruiter's position within the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) as program leader of the research program “What works in policing: Towards evidence-based policing in the Netherlands”. This research program contributes to the scientific underpinning of evidence-based policing policy and practices.