Meta-Analysis and the Organization of Knowledge

Francis T. “Frank” Cullen has never himself calculated a statistical effect size estimate between two variables. That fact has not, however, stopped him from becoming one of the most influential criminologists in the world when it comes to meta-analysis and the organization of knowledge in criminology and criminal justice. Accordingly, this chapter traces Frank’s career with meta-analysis and research synthesis. It begins with his early efforts at knowledge organization in the late 1970s while still in graduate school, and then moves on to his work with Canadian scholars on the effectiveness of correctional interventions in the early 1990s, to his decades-long work synthesizing the research testing various criminological theories, to his current use of meta-analytic techniques to encourage scholars to engage in “organized skepticism.” It concludes with his current meta-analytic work that exposes the foolishness of “swift-certain-fair” approaches to corrections and that examines the sources of school violence.