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When young people are released from juvenile detention, jail or prison, one of the biggest concerns for society is how to prevent that offender from repeating those bad actions. A new study led by Mark Cohen, an economist and professor at the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management, found that the re-entry program for youth offenders called YouthBuild reduced criminal activity, raised graduation rates and created a substantial cost-benefit for taxpayers.
- YouthBuild Offender Project graduates had a recidivism rate of 28.3 percent, which is around 10 percent lower than similar groups the researchers compared.
- About 46 percent of participants earned their general equivalency degrees (GED) or high school diplomas within 2 ½ years – which is more than twice the national average for high school dropouts.
- Every single dollar spent on a YouthBuild participant yielded between $10.80 and $42.90 in benefits to taxpayers.
- Overall, the potential benefits to society from both improved graduation rates and reduced crime ranged between $134,000 and $536,000 per participant with a cost to society of about $12,500.
Cohen and his research partner Alex Piquero, a criminology professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, used data on 388 ex-offenders from 30 YouthBuild Offender Projects across the United States. Estimates of the costs and potential benefits of the YouthBuild Program were derived by comparing the YouthBuild participants’ education and recidivism outcomes to those of other high school dropouts and offenders.
In YouthBuild programs, low-income young people, ages 16-24, work toward their GED or high school diplomas, while they learn job skills and serve their communities by building affordable housing. The full-time program runs from nine to 24 months, with youth spending half of their time constructing housing for homeless and low-income people, and the other half in a YouthBuild classroom. A major emphasis is placed on leadership development and community service. The project was funded by the U.S. Department of Labor and managed by YouthBuild USA, a national non-profit organization.
"As state and national policymakers search for programs that are effective with young offenders, our findings indicate that the YouthBuild Offender Project offers very promising results," said Cohen.
To read Cohen’s summary and full study, click http://ssrn.com/abstract=1154055.
There are 226 local, autonomous YouthBuild programs in 42 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. To learn more about YouthBuild, go to www.youthbuild.org.
The Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management is ranked as a top institution by BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Financial Times and Forbes. For more information about Owen, visit www.owen.vanderbilt.edu.
Media Contact: Amy Wolf, (615) 322-NEWS
amy.wolf@vanderbilt.edu