This book addresses and reviews progress in a major innovative development within police work known as evidence-based policing. It involves a significant extension and strengthening of links between research and practice and is directed to the task of increasing police effectiveness in the field of community crime prevention. This volume provides an international perspective that synthesizes recent research results from the United States and other countries - including systematic reviews of large bodies of evidence - to illuminate several of the most challenging issues currently confronting police departments. It examines recent advances in research-based models of policing and the expanding base in outcome evaluation. Coverage includes: managing the nighttime economy; supervising sex offenders; tackling domestic/intimate partner violence; addressing school violence and the formation of gangs; reducing victim and witness retraction and disengagement; responding to mental disorders, safeguarding vulnerable adults, and providing victim support; and leveraging public awareness campaigns. Each chapter overviews key issues within a designated area, synthesizes existing reviews, and examines the most recent research. The book presents major concepts, theories, and research findings, providing both conceptual and analytic tools alongside an integrated presentation of principal findings and messages. It concludes with a discussion of current directions in research, key developments in policing strategies, and identification of effective operational structures for facilitating and sustaining research-practice links. The book is for researchers, clinicians and other professionals, and graduate students in forensic psychology, criminology and criminal justice, public health, developmental psychology, psychotherapy and counseling, psychiatry, social work, educational policy and politics, health psychology, nursing, and behavioral therapy/rehabilitation.