Youth Violence Prevention - Pathways to Violence

IS PREVENTION COST-EFFECTIVE?

Sometimes cost savings due to prevention and intervention programs are not obvious because of the time lag between the implementation of a program and the appearance of its effects. However, in the United States, where criminal justice focuses on get-tough laws and incarceration for serious violent criminals, hundreds of billions of dollars are spent each year on the criminal justice system, security, and the treatment of victims, or are lost due to lower productivity and quality of life.

Crime prevention, on the other hand, avoids incurring not only the costs of incarceration, but also some short- and long-term costs to victims, including material losses and medical costs. Other benefits may be difficult to quantify, but in addition to reduced medical costs, the indirect benefits of preventing serious or violent offenses include increased worker productivity, increased tax collection, and even reduced welfare costs.

It is important to match the intervention to the target population. This link has a critical effect on both the cost effectiveness and the overall effectiveness of an intervention. For more details about the cost effectiveness of youth violence prevention programs, see Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General, chapter 5.

VIOLENCE PREVENTION PROGRAMS BY BEST PRACTICES CATEGORY

The Surgeon General's report identifies strategies and programs that work, that are promising, and that do not work to prevent youth violence. If a program is not identified in the Surgeon General's report as "model" or "promising," it does not mean it is ineffective. In most cases, it means only that it has not yet been rigorously evaluated or that its evaluation was not complete. The scientific standards that were used in the analysis of programs for the Surgeon General's report are given here.

Model

• Rigorous experimental design (experimental or quasi-experimental)
• Significant deterrent effects on:
  • Violence or serious delinquency
  • Any risk factor for violence with a large effect size (.30 or greater)
• Replication with demonstrated effects
• Sustainability of effects

Promising

• Rigorous experimental design (experimental or quasi-experimental)
• Significant deterrent effects on:
  • Violence or serious delinquency
  • Any risk factor for violence with an effect size of .10 or greater
• Either replication or sustainability of effects

Does not work

• Rigorous experimental design (experimental or quasi-experimental)
• Significant evidence of null or negative effects on violence or known risk factors for violence
• Replication, with the preponderance of evidence suggesting that the program is ineffective or harmful

Twenty-seven model and promising programs and two programs that do not work are presented in the U.S. Surgeon General's report. Some are school-based and some are community-based. They present a wide variety of approaches for dealing with problems ranging from poor parenting to bullying, drug abuse, and gang involvement. Table 4 lists these programs. Descriptions of the programs are included in the appendix of this pamphlet and in the U.S. Surgeon General's report, pages 133-151.