Comprehensive violence prevention can work

By Linda Jucovy and Wendy S. McClanahan

The Youth Violence Reduction Partnership (YVRP) — a collaboration involving the district attorney’s office, adult and juvenile probation, police, other city agencies and community organizations — began operations in Philadelphia in 1999.

Inspired by the successful “Boston Miracle” and modeled to work in the particular circumstances of Philadelphia, its goal is to steer young people, ages 14 to 24 and at greatest risk of killing or being killed, away from violence and toward productive lives.

To accomplish this, YVRP provides them with a combination of strict supervision and ongoing support. Each participant is assigned to a team that includes a probation officer and a community street worker, who work intensively with the young person to make sure that he (and, less often, she) not only stays out of trouble but starts on a path toward responsible adulthood.

YVRP was developed in response to widespread concern about high levels of gun violence and homicides among teenagers and young adults. From 1996 to 1999, for example, 1,460 people were murdered in Philadelphia. Fifty-three percent of the accused killers were ages 18 to 24, and an additional 10 percent were 12 to 17 years old. A high percentage of the victims were also young — 34 percent were 18 to 24 years old, and 6 percent were 12 to 17 — and most were victims of gun violence. In fact, among the 18- to 24-year-old victims, almost 9 out of 10 (88 percent) died from guns.

Not surprisingly, the murders were concentrated in the city’s poorest neighborhoods — almost half (49 percent) occurred in just five of the 25 police districts — and both the murderers and victims often had criminal histories. Astudy of 100 randomly selected murder victims showed that 52 percent had been charged with at least one offense prior to their murder and, on average, had 3.7 arrests.

Data such as these strongly suggested that concentrating resources and intensifying efforts with targeted groups in specific police districts could have a meaningful impact on reducing gun violence and homicides. Thus, YVRP focuses its effort on known offenders in their late teens and early 20’s — encompassing the ages of those who are at the highest risk of killing or being killed — along with younger teens who have shown themselves to be heading down a path that is likely to lead to escalating crime and violence.

YVRP has a straightforward strategy: Identify the young people in the targeted districts who are at greatest risk of killing or being killed, and provide them with strict supervision and consistent support to help them to stay away from violence and to develop attitudes, behaviors and skills that can lead them toward becoming productive and responsible adults. While each municipality will need to adapt the approach to work within its particular governmental structures and local conditions, several elements of the model seem essential for success in planning, operating, maintaining and strengthening the initiative.

While definitive information on the impacts of YVRP will not be available until a comparison study is completed, performance data from the initiative are promising: YVRP is serving young people intensively and getting them involved in positive activities. From January 2000 through December 2006, YVRP served more than 1,818 young people, who remained active in the program an average of eight months.

Street outreach workers and probation officers visited each youth — in his or her home or elsewhere in the community — an average of 13 times per month. On average, almost half of participants were involved in positive supports each month they were active in the program.

Importantly, those who stay in YVRP for the longer-term remain involved in some type of positive support over time. For example, among participants who were in YVRP for three or more consecutive months, 78 percent had been involved in positive supports on a continuing basis for a three-month period. And among participants who were in YVRP for six consecutive months, the vast majority (89 percent) had been involved in at least one type of positive support, including more than 57 percent in a job and 35 percent of those not of compulsory school age in an educational support.

Most participants have avoided becoming involved in violence. While active in YVRP, only 4 percent of participants have been victims of a violent crime involving a gun; overall, only 6 percent have been victims of any kind of violent crime. The intensive supervision that underlies YVRP is a likely contributor to these results. A central purpose of the supervision is to catch probation violations — which could include, for example, participants violating curfews, or restrictions on where they can go or whom they can associate with, as well as using drugs or carrying a weapon — before problems escalate.

Recently, Philadelphia has experienced an increase in homicides — a peak of 406 in 2006 as compared with numbers in the high 200’s and low 300’s in the early 2000’s. But data indicate that YVRP may still be having a positive effect on the number of young people who are victims of homicide.

The data suggest that YVRPis associated with a decrease in homicides among youth: On average, homicides among 7- to 24-year-olds went down 32.7 percent in the districts in which YVRP has been implemented. Furthermore, analyses show that these differences persist even when we account for the homicide rate in the city as a whole. While these data do not prove that YVRP is responsible for the relatively better findings — cause-and-effect relationships are always difficult to document, particularly with a comprehensive intervention taking place in complex community settings — they suggest that YVRP may be making a difference.

This article was adapted from a report written by Linda Jucovy and Wendy S. McClanahan on behalf of the nonprofit organization, Public/Private Ventures.

Originally published Aug. 6-12, 2008