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Fields Changed

Registration

Field Before After
Trial Status on_going completed
Trial End Date March 31, 2021 November 30, 2024
Last Published September 07, 2018 03:42 PM May 08, 2026 02:37 PM
Study Withdrawn No
Intervention Completion Date November 30, 2024
Data Collection Complete Yes
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization) 2,074 individuals, 1,052 in treatment and 1,022 in control
Was attrition correlated with treatment status? No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations 2,074
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms 2,074; 1,052 in treatment and 1,022 in control
Is there a restricted access data set available on request? Yes
Restricted Data Contact Chicago Police Department and Chicago Public Schools
Program Files No
Data Collection Completion Date November 30, 2024
Is data available for public use? No
Intervention End Date March 31, 2019 November 30, 2024
Keyword(s) Crime Violence And Conflict, Education Crime Violence And Conflict, Education
Public analysis plan No Yes
Building on Existing Work No
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Papers

Field Before After
Paper Abstract We conduct a large-scale, randomized controlled trial of a six-month intervention combining intensive mentoring and group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for youth in Chicago, following study participants for up to five years. The program was designed to engage young people at higher risk of engagement with the criminal justice system, and successfully did so with a take-up rate of 62%. Over 24 months, youth offered the program experienced an 18% reduction in the probability of being arrested, with no impact on number of arrests. We find a significant impact on violence engagement, with a 23% reduction in the probability of a violent-crime arrest within 24 months. We find the program's impact in preventing any arrest persists into adulthood, up to four years post randomization. The program moderately improves school engagement in the first year as well. Sub-population analyses suggests that all youth are benefiting from the program, but that the program may be moving different outcomes for different groups of youth in ways related to baseline risk of engaging in the justice system or disengaging from school. We conclude that programs that combine CBT and mentoring can serve as a model to engaging a harder-to-reach population of youth, predominantly outside of school, and be cost effective in reducing criminal justice contact in the longer run.
Paper Citation Abdul-Razzak, Nour and Domash, Brandon and Hallberg, Kelly and Pinto Poehls, Cristobal, Longer-Term Impacts of a Youth Behavioral Science Intervention: Experimental Evidence from Chicago. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5303292 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5303292
Paper URL https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5303292
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