- Investing in young people from neighborhoods with heightened levels of community violence can reduce the likelihood that they get caught up in violent cycles.
- For example, summer jobs can assist students by occupying time in months idle from school and decrease violent crime arrest rates among young people by as much as 42%.*
- Minnesota has programs like this; however, the scope of the program hasn’t been adjusted since 2016, despite a significant rise in violence. There is considerable room for the state to grow this effort.**
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is also key for reducing violence amongst young people.
- Weekly programs both in and after school that engage high school students and teach young people to identify their negative thought patterns and replace them with healthier ones can reduce violent crime by 45% and increase graduation rates by 19.***
- Minnesota could fund these crucial programs and make them more accessible across the state to keep communities safer.
Sources
*Davis, J. M. V., & Heller, S. B. (2020). Rethinking the Benefits of Youth Employment Programs: The Heterogeneous Effects of Summer Jobs. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 102(4), 664–677. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_00850
Modestino, A. S. (2019). How Do Summer Youth Employment Programs Improve Criminal Justice Outcomes, and for Whom? Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 38(3), 600–628. https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22138
**SFY 2022-2023 Youth at Work Equity Grant. (2022, November 16). https://mn.gov/deed/assets/2022-youth-at-work_tcm1045-559899.pdf
175 Youth at Work Competitive Grants / Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. (2020). Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. https://mn.gov/deed/programs-services/office-youth-development/special/grants/
***Matthews, D. (2014, May). How Chicago is using psychotherapy to fight crime — and winning. Vox; Vox. https://www.vox.com/2014/5/1/5669578/how-chicago-is-using-psychotherapy-to-fight-crime-and-winning
Heller, S. B., Shah, A. K., Guryan, J., Ludwig, J., Mullainathan, S., & Pollack, H. A. (2016). Thinking, Fast and Slow? Some Field Experiments to Reduce Crime and Dropout in Chicago*. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 132(1), 1–54. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjw033
