To address challenges within traditional research designs for crime reduction and justice system improvement, this brief from WestEd’s Justice and Prevention Research Center provides information about the Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) method.

The brief shares a comprehensive overview of the RDD method that emphasizes its significance and efficacy in evaluating interventions in real-world scenarios. It advocates for increased RDD adoption, highlighting ethical advantages and the potential for more accurate and applicable research outcomes compared to other common evaluation approaches.

Researchers, policymakers, and practitioners seeking ethical, practical, and data-driven approaches to intervention evaluation will also find practical guidance for employing RDD.