# Experimental Evidence on Reducing Youth Violence and Improving Life Outcomes in Chicago

> **NIH ALLCDC R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · 2020 · $142,136

## Abstract

Project Summary / Abstract
Title: Experimental Evidence on Reducing Youth Violence and Improving Life Outcomes
in Chicago
The broad aim of this proposal is to carry out a large-scale RCT that tries to use intensive
mentoring to engage and retain those youth at highest risk for violence involvement in a five-
month behavioral-science-informed intervention focused on decision making to decrease
violence involvement (trauma-informed cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT). This study of
Choose to Change (C2C) is submitted in response to R01 “Research Grants for Preventing
Violence and Violence Related Injury” (RFA-CE-18-001) under Objective B. This project
addresses the mission of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by generating
evidence on what works to address the public health challenge of youth violence. The specific
aims of the project are as follows: 1) Complete the RCT currently underway, to ensure
enrollment, random assignment and program delivery are all carried out with maximum fidelity,
2) Generate final impact estimates of the causal effects of C2C on behavioral outcomes (youth
violence) using data from the Chicago Police Department and academic outcomes from the
Chicago Public Schools, and identify differential responses across youth (treatment
heterogeneity), 3) Measure the spillover effects of C2C on peers, 4) Identify and understand the
behavioral mechanisms behind the impacts we find, 5) Identify the cost-effectiveness of this
approach, 6) Disseminate these findings through publication in a top-tier peer-reviewed
scientific outlet, complemented by other outreach activities oriented towards policymakers and
practitioners, 7) Document and manualize the C2C therapy curriculum for the purpose of
supporting replication. The present proposal requests funding for three years to carry out these
aims. The sample size is 1,600 youth randomized over the 2015 to 2018 period, with almost 500
program participants. Eligible youth are referred by school and community partners who have
been identified as being at risk for violence involvement. The research will be led by PI, Dr. Jens
Ludwig, and supported by a team at the UChicago Crime Lab. The use of intensive mentorship
to enroll the highest-risk youth in programming is one innovation. Another is the use of
administrative data to measure social networks at low cost, which lets us test how peer
networks moderate program impacts and are also affected by the program. A final innovation is
to administer behavioral science ‘lab experiments’ to treatment and control groups in our field
RCT to learn more about mechanisms of action. We believe the results of this research will be
of great policy and public health value to cities across the US in finding methods to prevent
youth violence to improve the safety and life outcomes of their most vulnerable young people.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10003107
- **Project number:** 5R01CE002971-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Max Kapustin
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $142,136
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-30 → 2022-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10003107

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10003107, Experimental Evidence on Reducing Youth Violence and Improving Life Outcomes in Chicago (5R01CE002971-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10003107. Licensed CC0.

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