The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) funded K–12 educational communities across the country to support their efforts to address youth violence by identifying needs and implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention efforts. In collaboration with our partner and lead organization, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the JPRC (and teammates from WestEd’s Resilient and Health Schools and Communities) will provide direct technical assistance to a selected number of these grantees. Our team will support grantees in their planning and implementation of specific programs and strategies to prevent youth violence. We will lead several broader tasks, including providing webinars and other group learning opportunities, and creating tools and other resources for the field.
Violence Prevention
Providing Technical Assistance to Enhance School Capacity to Prevent Youth Violence
What Makes a State School Safety Center Work? The First National Study
NIJ-Funded Study on Safe Firearms Storage
We are partnering with the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University on a new NIJ-funded grant. The grant supports a 3-year study to examine early-stage implementation of a recent Texas mandate requiring schools to disseminate safe firearms storage information to students’ families each year. The research team will survey a statewide representative sample of school administrators and parents to assess perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors related to the campaign, including how the findings vary across demographic and community factors. The study will also include a process of co-interpretation with students and parents to inform future implementation strategies in the state.
Intensified Support for Juvenile Offenders on Probation: Evidence From Germany (RDD Design in Crime and Justice Project Study Summary #2)
WestEd’s Jonathan Nakamoto and Trent Baskerville summarized this study conducted by researchers Christoph Engel, Sebastian J. Goerg, and Christian Traxler to investigate the impact of an intensive probation program on youth recidivism.
Using a prospective Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD), the study assigned half of the eligible youth above a cutoff score to receive the intensive probation program, while the other half received regular probation. The research team collected individual-level conviction data from Germany’s Federal Crime Register and used a risk scorecard to evaluate each youth’s criminal history and risks/needs.
The findings revealed that recidivism was approximately 10 percentage points lower for youth eligible for the intensive probation program after 6 months, with this difference increasing to around 30 percentage points between 1 and 3 years later. These reductions in recidivism were statistically significant for less severe offenders close to the assignment variable cutoff. Overall, the study highlights how intensified personal support and increased monitoring by probation officers can contribute to positive outcomes in reducing recidivism among juvenile offenders.
Under the Cover of Darkness: How Ambient Light Influences Criminal Activity (RDD in Crime and Justice Project Study Summary #3)
WestEd’s Jonathan Nakamoto and Trent Baskerville summarized this study conducted by researchers Jennifer L. Doleac and Nicholas J. Sanders to investigate the impact of increased daylight during evening hours due to Daylight Savings Time (DST) on criminal activity.
Using a retrospective Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) study, the researchers used crime and population data from 558 jurisdictions in the United States between 2005 and 2008. They found that DST led to reductions in robbery and rape rates, with the most significant decreases occurring in the hour following sunset.
The study revealed statistically significant reductions of 7 percent for robbery and 11 percent for rape in daily crime rates after DST, while there were no significant changes for aggravated assault and murder. However, analysis of crime rates specifically within the hour after sunset revealed larger reductions of 27 percent for robbery and 38 percent for rape. Importantly, the findings indicated that criminal activity was not shifted to other times of the day. The authors estimated that these reductions could result in annual savings of nearly $60 million due to avoided robberies and approximately $250 million due to avoided rapes as a result of DST implementation.