Homicide rates have been increasing over the past year, in many communities across the U.S. This webinar series will highlight the best research on how to reduce violent crime, with the goal of informing policy and practice to make our communities safer.

Reducing Violence – Session I

July 19, 12:00 p.m. EDT

David Phillips, University of Notre Dame             

Does emergency financial assistance reduce crime?

Judd Kessler, University of Pennsylvania           

The Effects of Youth Employment: Evidence from New York City Lotteries

Priscillia Hunt, RAND Corporation

Predictions Put Into Practice: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of Chicago’s Predictive Policing Pilot

Jennifer Doleac, Texas A&M University    

The effects of DNA databases on the deterrence and detection of offenders

Kevin Schnepel, Simon Fraser University 

Life after Lead: Effects of Early Interventions for Children Exposed to Lead


Reducing Violence – Session II

July 26, 12:00 p.m. EDT

Monica Deza, CUNY-Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center

Access to Mental Healthcare Providers and Local Crime

Santiago Tobon, Universidad EAFIT

Gang rule: Understanding and Countering Criminal Governance

Deepak Premkumar, Public Policy Institute of California

Public Scrutiny and Police Effort: Evidence from Arrests and Crime After High-Profile Police Killings

Patrick Sharkey, Princeton University

The Effect of the New York State Gun Violence Reduction Program on Individual Parole Violations and Arrests

Alicia Sasser Modestino, Northeastern University

How Do Summer Youth Employment Programs Improve Criminal Justice Outcomes, and for Whom?


Reducing Violence – Session III

August 2, 12:00 p.m. EDT

Sara Heller, University of Michigan

Thinking, Fast and Slow? Some Field Experiments to Reduce Crime and Dropout in Chicago

John Macdonald, University of Pennsylvania

Changing Places: Remediating Infrastructure to Reduce Gun Violence

Morgan Williams Jr., Barnard College

Police Force Size and Civilian Race

Michael LaForest, Penn State University

Can Precision Policing Reduce Gun Violence? Evidence from “Gang Takedowns” in New York City

Chloe Gibbs, University of Notre Dame

Breaking the Cycle? Intergenerational Effects of an Anti-Poverty Program in Early Childhood


Reducing Violence – Session IV

August 9, 12:00 p.m. EDT

Amanda Agan, Rutgers University

Misdemeanor Prosecution

Aaron Chalfin, University of Pennsylvania

Reducing Crime Through Environmental Design: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment of Street Lighting in New York City 

Isaac Swensen, Montana State University

Substance-Abuse Treatment Centers and Local Crime

Sarah Komisarow, Duke University

Community monitoring and crime: Evidence from Chicago’s Safe Passage Program

Max Kapustin, Cornell University

Predicting and Preventing Gun Violence: An Experimental Evaluation of READI Chicago


Reducing Violence – Session V

August 16, 12:00 p.m. EDT

Elisa Jácome, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Mental Health and Criminal Involvement: Evidence from Losing Medicaid Eligibility

Kevin Schnepel, Simon Fraser University

Diversion in the Criminal Justice System

Gaurav Khanna, University of California – San Diego

Formal Employment and Organized Crime: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Colombia

Sara Heller, University of Michigan

When Scale and Replication Work: Learning from Summer Youth Employment Experiments