May 2024
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.
A growing body of evidence suggests focused deterrence strategies successfully reduce youth involvement in violent crime. Very little of this evidence comes from randomized experiments. This paper takes a step toward filling this gap in the literature. The authors present the results of a randomized experiment evaluating a series of youth outreach forums that leverage several focused deterrence strategies. They find that participation in the forums corresponds to very valuable and proportionally large reductions in the social costs of crime and suggestive evidence that the forums increase attachment to school.
![](https://crimelab.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2023-08-17-at-2.28.37-PM-233x300.png)
Choose to Change Research Brief
Learn more about the Choose to Change evaluation in this research brief.
![Thumbnail of Back to Our Future Policy Brief](https://crimelab.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-09-at-12.33.01-PM-243x300.png)
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.
![](https://crimelab.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/CVILA-featured-image-300x164.png)
2024 Video: Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy (CVILA) Inaugural Cohort
Watch our latest video about the inaugural cohort of the CVILA.
Preventing Youth Violence: An Evaluation of Youth Guidance’s Becoming A Man Program
Read about a report prepared for the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation.
Latest Updates
Intervention over Incarceration: A Limited Government Approach to Youth Violence
The R Street Institute’s Logan Seacrest highlights how the University of Chicago Crime Lab’s Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy is providing leaders in the CVI ecosystem with updated tools needed to do their jobs through rigorous professional development opportunities.
![R Street Logo](https://crimelab.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/R-Street.jpg)
Jens Ludwig – Can Behavioral Science Reduce Crime?
In this seminar, Faculty Director Jens Ludwig presented his SNS report titled “Using Behavioral Science to Reduce Crime and School Dropout” and participated in a panel discussion as part of the Institute for International Economic Studies/SNS International Policy talks.
![](https://crimelab.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/sns_2_logo.jpg)
UChicago’s Crime Lab and Education Lab find Choose to Change program is breaking violence cycle among traumatized teens
Nour Abdul-Razzak, Crime Lab and Education Lab affiliate and John Wolf, the Associate Director of the Education Lab are quoted in this piece on the preliminary findings of Choose to Change.
![](https://crimelab.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/08/image.jpeg)