Freakonomics

Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner provides interesting insight into how the study of social statistics could effect social policy. Rigorous and independent review of statistical material may prove to be very powerful in improving society and could aid the democratic process. Freaconomics provides examples of the types of studies that an Independent Scientific Commission could carry out.

That said, correlation of statistics doesn't infer cause and effect and it must be made clear that this is a different level of evidence compared to conducting controlled experiments.