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Not necessarily. A Promising rating indicates that there is some evidence of effectiveness, but more rigorous evaluation research is needed. These programs may still be impactful, especially if they align well with local needs. The foundation of the program can be adapted to local needs, and the research design can be enhanced to assist with improving outcomes.
CrimeSolutions includes Ineffective programs and practices to inform policymakers and practitioners about the current status of available evaluation evidence before planning or implementing similar efforts. While interventions with Ineffective ratings may have some evidence of positive effects, it is important to evaluate each intervention based on your specific goals.
Programs and practices rated Ineffective or Negative Effects have strong evidence that the program did have the intended effects or had harmful effects when trying to achieve justice-related outcomes. In cases where Negative Effects were found, CrimeSolutions will identify and describe observed negative effects.
Gaining an understanding as to why a program did not work can provide valuable insights. An Ineffective rating may only apply to specific outcomes, and the program may have other Effective or Promising outcomes in other dimensions of the evaluation.
The rating title was changed to better reflect the interventions that did not have their intended effect, even though some evaluations may have demonstrated certain positive outcomes. The new rating better communicates the evidence assessment of the intervention outcome.
You may notice that a practice’s outcome ratings may not be the same as the programs that are encompassed by that practice and vice versa. For example, some practices have outcomes that are rated Effective, but program outcomes listed in the Related Programs section are rated Promising, Ineffective, or Negative Effects.
This can happen because practice ratings reflect an assessment of the average effectiveness of a specific characteristic(s) common across programs, strategies, or procedures. Practice ratings do not take into account variations in implementation or other program-specific factors. If such variations impact the effectiveness of the essential practice characteristic(s), practice and program ratings may diverge as the program-specific effectiveness may differ from the average effectiveness across multiple programs.
Programs rated during and after March 2025 are rated-by-outcome, which will be a more direct comparison to outcomes rated in practices.
Yes. As new research becomes available, interventions may be re-reviewed and ratings may change to reflect the most current evidence base. Programs rated before March 2025 are going through a re-review process to transition their ratings using the ratings-by-outcome scoring instrument, providing more detailed information for each outcome instead of an overall program rating.
