Using Small Groups and Sports to Reduce Youth Violence in Chicago

Homicide is the leading cause of death among black males aged 15-24 in the United States, totaling more than the next nine causes of death combined for this group of young men. The trend is especially evident here in Chicago: Over 600 Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students were shot between September 2008 and April 2010. Most victims and perpetrators were young men.

In response to this sobering reality, the University of Chicago Crime Lab launched an initiative to identify and evaluate promising interventions to reduce youth gun violence. In July 2012, the Crime Lab released findings from a large-scale randomized controlled trial of one such program: a one-year initiative designed to develop social and cognitive skills such as impulse control and conflict resolution among at-risk adolescent males in CPS. The focus on social and cognitive skills stems from a stream of research that suggests that impulsive behavior and an inability to resolve conflict may be, in part, responsible for many of the homicides of Chicago youth.

The program, “Becoming a Man: Sports Edition,” offers a combination of in-school and after-school small group sessions that focus on developing skills in social and emotional regulation, interpersonal problem solving, and goal setting. Weekly in-school sessions during the school year include structured skill-based lessons and weekly homework assignments designed to practice and apply that skill. After-school sessions include nontraditional sports such as wrestling, martial arts, archery, and handball to teach students self-discipline and concentration. Sports activities reinforce conflict resolution skills and social-emotional learning in the student groups.

Nearly 2,800 disadvantaged males in grades seven through 10 and attending 18 Chicago Public Schools participated in the program. Each school in the study serves a low-income community that faces a host of social and economic challenges, including adolescent violence. The evaluation targeted students of “medium risk”––youth with school records that indicated social and cognitive skill deficits, but who were still likely to attend school regularly enough to benefit from the intervention. Two-thirds of these young men were black and one-third Hispanic. On average, these students missed nearly six weeks of school a year and had a mean GPA of a D+. Nearly a third had been arrested in the past.

Students were randomly assigned to the treatment group (in-school programming only, after-school programming only, or both) or control group (no programming received). About half of the students assigned to the treatment group participated in the program, and those who attended went to approximately 13 of the 27 program sessions offered. To evaluate the impact of the program, researchers measured CPS school engagement and performance records and Illinois State Police arrest records.

Researchers found that program participation significantly increased school engagement and performance during the program year itself and in the subsequent post-program year. Drawing upon other longitudinal studies within CPS that link graduation and school engagement, the researchers estimate that these impacts imply future graduation rate increases of 10 to 23 percent relative to the control group.

The intervention also reduced violent-crime arrests during the program year by 44 percent and arrests in miscellaneous crime (including vandalism and weapons crime) by 36 percent. Researchers think that improved social, emotional, and cognitive skills might partially explain these impacts.

The program impacts on criminal behavior during the program year alone generated benefits to society valued between $3,600 and $34,000 per participant. These estimates include tangible costs of crime (insurance and medical care, reduced costs of arrest and incarceration, etc.) and vary due to the way intangible costs of crime (quality of life costs) are estimated. The estimated program benefits of reduced arrests range from three to 31 times the actual cost of the program.

The results of the intervention also suggest a significant academic impact with long-term outcomes. At a cost of roughly $1,100 per program participant, the total social benefit falls between $49,000 and $119,000 per person if the estimated impacts on high school graduation rates are realized. These estimates include lifetime earnings, tax payments, and lower use of public benefits.

These sizable gains are particularly notable, given the relatively limited amount of time participants spent in the program (roughly 13 sessions) and the low cost of the intervention. While the long-term impacts of the program are unknown, the results seem promising. There may be considerable returns to Chicago, and other cities struggling with youth violence, by expanding investments in promising interventions like this one. Far more valuable than any monetary return, however, this research suggests that teaching important social and cognitive skills, like impulse control and conflict resolution in our classrooms, might help save lives of Chicago youth.

Feature Photo: cc/jDevaun