Preventing Crime: What Works for Children, OVenders, V ictims, and Places is the first book that details the role of the Campbell Collaboration in assessing outcomes in crime and justice. I first heard about the Campbell Collaboration in the summer of 1999 and immediately decided to be part of this valiant effort to change the way crime and justice, education, and social welfare were implemented around the world. As a longtime champion of research I was impressed by the way the Campbell Collaboration looked at programs and policies. This book represents the first step in setting the framework for how to go about reinventing crime and justice and gives a good example for both education and social welfare. Of course, this does not come without challenges. The first challenge is to find out what works through high quality scientific research. The second challenge is to get public officials to embrace the findings and take action. Crime and justice, as well as education, have been sidetracked by fads, political expediency, and private agendas. In the United States, welfare to work has become the exception. Numerous randomized controlled studies have been conducted that led to major changes in welfare to work, which have proven to be quite effective. And, more importantly, the United States government has acted on these studies to make changes for the betterment of the underclass of society. There is an undercurrent in both the United Kingdom and here in the United States for using high quality scientific research to find out what works and what doesn?t work in implementing social policy. And it is picking up steam. The Jerry Lee Foundation is dedicated to solving the problems of the inner cities. The problems of crime, lack of education, and social welfare ( jobs) are the mission of the Jerry Lee Foundation. I believe that governments around the world have enough money and resources to solve most of society?s problems, if only we would invest in scientific research to find out what works. This would allow us to better target our resources on what works and quit spending money on what doesn?t work. I for one am very optimistic that within 20 years time, high quality scientific research will be the rule rather than the exception in determining public policy. This book, which brings together the leading researchers in evidence-based criminology and public policy, represents an important step forward towards this aim.