The Long Run Effects of a Program Aimed At Reducing Crime and Violence: Experimental Evidence from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Liberia

We experimentally ran two interventions.

One intervention was participation in an 8-week CBT-informed program called Sustainable Transformation for Youth in Liberia (STYL).

The second was a US$200 grant—about 3 months wages.

The interventions took place a decade ago. This pre-registration pertains to a follow-up survey of participants.

The registration for the original study is here: Blattman, Christopher, Julian Jamison and Margaret Sheridan. 2016. "Reducing Crime and Violence Experimental Evidence on Adult Noncognitive Investments in Liberia." AEA RCT Registry. April 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1205-1.0.

For this follow-up survey, we have marked the trial start date as 11-19-2020 as we expect to start surveys on that day or shortly thereafter. Since the platform requires that the intervention start date and end date take place after the trial start date, we have put down 11-19-2020 as intervention start date and 11-20-2020 as intervention end date in order to bypass the platform. The intervention, though, took place a decade ago, and no intervention will take place as part of this follow-up study.

2020-11-19

2020-11-20

Anti-social behavior

1. Economic performance
2. Time preference
3. Self-control skills
4. Anti-criminal and anti-violent self-image/values
5. Positive self-regard/mental health
6. Substance use
7. Social networks
8. Mortality

As described in Blattman et al. (2017), working with the Liberian NGO Network for Empowerment & Progressive Initiative (NEPI), in 2009 we identified the highest-risk men in Liberia's capital, generally aged 18 to 35. Most were engaged in part-time theft and drug dealing, and regularly had violent confrontations with each other, community members, and police. We identified roughly 1,500 men as eligible and invited them to the study, and 999 agreed to participate.

We experimentally ran two interventions using a 2 x 2 factorial design. One intervention was participation in an 8-week CBT-informed program called Sustainable Transformation for Youth in Liberia (STYL) and run by NEPI. The second was a US$200 grant—about 3 months wages. The programs were implemented in three waves: of 100 participants in 2010 and of 398 and 501 participants in 2011. Subjects either received offers of therapy alone, cash, therapy and cash, or neither. To deliver both treatments cost about $530 per participant.

Of those assigned to therapy, nearly all attended at least a day, and two thirds completed the 8-week program. The cash was partly a measurement tool, to see if therapy affected economic decisions, as well as a treatment, in the sense that it could stimulate legal self-employment.

We surveyed the men a few weeks after the interventions, and a year after the therapy and grants. In this new stage of the study, we plan to once again survey the study participants approximately 10 years after they enrolled in the study.

Each participant participated in two public draws: one to determine whether they would be invited to STYL, and the other to determine whether they would de offered a cash grant. To maximize transparency and staff safety, the participants took turns drawing colored chips from a fabric bag. The color of the chip determined treatment status.

Individual men

No

Study not clustered

Up to 999 men who participated in prior surveys for this same study.

Therapy: 277
Cash: 251
Therapy & cash: 249
Control: 222