The Citizen Security Research Initiative (CSRI), housed within Innovations for Poverty Action and supported by the United States Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), advances rigorous, policy-relevant research to strengthen citizen security and justice systems worldwide. This Research and Learning Agenda outlines CSRI’s strategic priorities for generating and summarizing evidence to inform more effective, accountable, and sustainable security policy and programming.
 
Grounded in consultations with 65 global experts and a comprehensive literature review, the agenda identifies four thematic areas: (1) countering organized crime, (2) combating drug trafficking and production, (3) preventing crime and violence, and (4) strengthening law enforcement and justice systems. A cross-cutting fifth area focuses on measurement and program design, emphasizing targeting, implementation, evaluation, cost-effectiveness, and scaling.
 
Having identified these priority research areas, CSRI will focus on producing accessible evidence syntheses to inform practitioners and policymakers and on supporting novel, rigorous research to address critical knowledge gaps. Through these efforts, CSRI aims to ensure that decision-makers are equipped with credible, actionable evidence to design, adapt, and scale interventions that effectively strengthen citizen security and justice systems.