Long-Term Effects of the Moving-to-Opportunity Experiment on Youth Violence

National Bureau Of Economic Research, Cambridge MA

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Abstract

Youth violence varies dramatically across neighborhoods in the U.S. These patterns highlight[unreadable] the potential value of "place-based" interventions to prevent youth violence.[unreadable] Objectives: We propose to evaluate one notable place-based intervention: The Moving to Opportunity[unreadable] (MTO) randomized housing-mobility experiment, which randomly assigns some public housing families but[unreadable] not others the chance to relocate to less disadvantaged and dangerous neighborhoods. We seek to[unreadable] understand the intervention's long-term effects on youth violence perpetration and victimization (9-12 years[unreadable] after randomization), how these impacts evolve over time, whether effects are larger for youth participants[unreadable] who are very young children at random assignment as recent research would suggest, and the behavioral[unreadable] or environmental mechanisms through which MTO affects youth violence.[unreadable] Study Design: Comparison of average violence victimization and perpetration rates for youth randomly[unreadable] assigned to different MTO mobility treatment groups.[unreadable] Setting: Since 1994 a total of 4600 low-income, mostly minority public housing families have enrolled in[unreadable] MTO in 5 cities (Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City).[unreadable] Participants: All youth and their parents or other adults in MTO households at random assignment.[unreadable] Interventions: MTO changes youth exposure to a wide variety of risk and protective factors that may vary[unreadable] systematically across neighborhood contexts, including peer and adult norms about violence and[unreadable] community-level organizations such as schools and public health or criminal justice agencies.[unreadable] Outcome Measures: We seek funding to collect administrative data on violent crime and other arrests for[unreadable] all MTO youth and adults to measure youth violent behavior, as well as child maltreatment by parents or[unreadable] other adult guardians 9-12 years after randomization. We also seek funding to expand our planned surveys[unreadable] of up to 6800 youth ages 10-20 at the end of 2006 to include measures of violent and risky behavior,[unreadable] violence victimization, sexual abuse and other forms of child maltreatment.