Oct 2024
Building safer communities: Behavioral science innovations in youth violence prevention
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This policy brief highlights results from a large-scale randomized controlled trial that evaluated the impact of Choose to Change® (C2C®) on participants’ criminal justice involvement.
Abstract
New insights from the field of behavioral science open new doors for addressing a seemingly intractable, and uniquely American, public health crisis: gun violence. This brief presents results from a study of the Chicago-based Choose to Change® (C2C®) program, a partnership between non-profits Brightpoint and Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (YAP)™. The data show that it is possible to create large and lasting reductions in violent-crime arrests among a program population that has historically been hard to reach: youth who are increasingly disconnected from school. If gun violence = guns + violence, then anything that reduces the prevalence of violence overall can be an important part of the solution to solving gun violence.
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Projects
Choose to Change® (C2C®) Program Guide
This program guide is intended for community-based organizations working to fill gaps in services and reach an underserved population of youth impacted by violence and trauma.
Unpacking the Impacts of a Youth Behavioral Health Intervention: Experimental Evidence from Chicago
This working paper details results from a study of Choose to Change® (C2C®), a trauma-informed cognitive behavioral therapy and intensive mentoring program developed by nonprofits Brightpoint and Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (YAP).
Improving Programming in Juvenile Detention: The Impact of Project Safe Neighborhoods Youth Outreach Forums
This paper presents the results of a randomized controlled trial of a youth outreach forums program run in the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center (JTDC) by the Northern Illinois Project Safe Neighborhoods Task Force.
B2OF Policy Brief: Supporting Youth Safety and Education Re-Engagement
This policy brief outlines the first year of implementation of Back to Our Future (B2OF), a state-funded, district-led, evidence-informed effort to re-engage disconnected students at an elevated risk for gun violence involvement.
Latest Updates
A History of Violence
Chicago Magazine’s Paula Kamen profiles Crime Lab Pritzker Director Jens Ludwig to discuss his new book, “Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence,” which offers social policy strategies for creating safer communities.
Editorial: A recognition that good policing starts from the top
The Crain’s Editorial Board highlights a $15 million gift from the Sue Ling Gin Foundation to support the Crime Lab in adapting its Policing Leadership Academy to provide management training to the Chicago Police Department’s leadership ranks.
Jens Ludwig: The unforgiving origins of Chicago gun violence
Regular Tribune Opinion contributor Jens Ludwig, Pritzker director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, has a new book, “Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence,” to be published April 21 by the University of Chicago Press. In this exclusive, lightly edited extract from Chapter One, Ludwig explores what caused three lives of young Chicagoans to change forever.
