Chicago gave hundreds of high-risk kids a summer job. Violent crime arrests plummeted.

[Sgent]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/08/one-cheap-way-to-curb-crime-give-teens-a-summer-job/

A couple of years ago, the city of Chicago started a summer jobs program for teenagers attending high schools in some of the city's high-crime, low-income neighborhoods. The program was meant, of course, to connect students to work. But officials also hoped that it might curb the kinds of problems — like higher crime — that arise when there's no work to be found.

Research on the program conducted by the University of Chicago Crime Lab and just published in the journal Science suggests that these summer jobs have actually had such an effect: Students who were randomly assigned to participate in the program had 43 percent fewer violent-crime arrests over 16 months, compared to students in a control group.

That number is striking for a couple of reasons: It implies that a relatively short (and inexpensive) intervention like an eight-week summer jobs program can have a lasting effect on teenage behavior. And it lends empirical support to a popular refrain by advocates: "Nothing stops a bullet like a job."

Researcher Sara Heller conducted a randomized control trial with the program, in partnership with the city. The study included 1,634 teens at 13 high schools. They were, on average, C students, almost all of them eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Twenty percent of the group had already been arrested, and 20 percent had already been victims of crime.

[nichomachus]

1. It's amazing what having a stake in your community will do.

However, when people -- not just kids -- feel they have nothing to lose, bad things happen.

[RedCappedBandit]

2. No surprise, but wonderful!

[think]

3. K&R

[Kalidurga]

4. Just think if they did something for their parents as well

That 43% would probably have gone down to nearly 0% I can't say how close because that study wasn't done. I would like to see that a program aimed at over worked, over qualified, under paid adults one that raises their families income. This one is good too, don't get me wrong anything that helps is a good thing.

[Frustratedlady]

5. No surprise there. I still think that if the Republicans had let Obama invest in a huge

infrastructure program, our economy would be much improved, as would our crime rate. Of course, their first concern was that Obama not succeed in anything. It appears that's about the only thing the Repugs accomplished.

This should be a nationwide program. If a 43% reduction in crime is real, that's quite an improvement.