Partnership approaches to tackling crime are now embedded in the way in which local areas in England and Wales approach community safety. The Crime and Disorder Act (1998) defines the core group of agencies involved in these partnerships as well as their functions and role at the local level. As yet, however, there have been no systematic attempts to review the social research evidence base related to partnership working and then synthesize the evidence base in such a way that it is easily accessed by practitioners and policymakers. The findings of the studies included in the review are mixed; however, overall the evidence suggests that the principle of applying partnership working as a component of initiatives to counter complex crime and disorder problems is effective. Features of partnerships likely to increase their effectiveness were found to be shared vision, values, and norms of the partners; clarity regarding the problems being addressed through focused analysis; regular face-to-face contact and communication between partners; flexibility of structures and processes; and prior experience in working in partnerships. The REA identified studies in which interventions that had partnership working as a core component were compared to interventions in which no formal partnership approach was in place. None of the studies could be described as solely testing the efficacy of partnerships. 5 tables and a reference listing of the studies examined