• $1,410,000Active Strategy

  2013 (Duration 1 year)

  Community & Economic Development

  CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — The University of Chicago Crime Lab uses rigorous research to generate evidence about the effectiveness of strategies to respond to youth violence. Crime Lab will use this grant to evaluate the City of Chicago's Public Safety Action Committee, a five-year, $50 million effort launched by Mayor Emanuel and local business leaders to reduce violence by raising funds for and supporting proven or promising programs that serve high-risk youths. Crime Lab will build a comprehensive evaluation program beginning with research on pilot efforts being funded this summer, and lay the groundwork for ongoing evaluations over the initiative's five-year term.

• $1,250,000Active Strategy

  2013 (Duration 2 years)

  Community & Economic Development

  CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — The University of Chicago Crime Lab was created to generate scientific evidence--primarily through randomized-controlled trials--about promising programs to reduce crime and violence. In 2009, the Foundation supported a Crime Lab study of the Youth Guidance Project's Becoming a Man (BAM), which found that a year of cognitive-behavioral training reduces violence involvement and increases school engagement among at-risk middle-school students. This grant funds a second major study to test whether an additional year of BAM training and academic enrichment will have longer-term anti-violence effects; and a portion of program implementation operations by the Youth Guidance Project and World Sports Chicago.

• $500,000Active Strategy

  2012 (Inactive Grant)

  Community & Economic Development

  CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — The University of Chicago Crime Lab was created to generate scientific evidence--primarily through randomized controlled trials--about promising programs to reduce crime and violence. This grant supports the research design and pilot implementation phase of a study of a promising middle-grades-focused, anti-violence intervention. The study--which will test whether a two-year cognitive behavioral therapy training program produces long-term anti-violence effects, and whether parallel academic enrichment can lead to improved student academic performance--will be a centerpiece of the Foundation's recently-launched anti-violence initiative designed to reduce gun violence in Chicago neighborhoods.

• $450,000Active Strategy

  2011 (Duration 3 years)

  Policy Research

  CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — The University of Chicago Crime Lab promotes long-term progress in reducing crime, violence, and related challenge such as school dropout. It conducts rigorous evaluations of innovative intervention strategies, including randomized experiments and benefit-cost analyses to help policymakers determine how best to allocate scarce resources. This grant provides Crime Lab with flexible operating support that will enable it to respond to growing demands and opportunities, build staff capacity, and enhance organizational stability; and to expand its portfolio of projects, provide technical assistance to government agencies and nonprofits, and increase the dissemination and communication of key research findings.

The MacArthur Foundation awarded University of Chicago Crime Lab $3,610,000 between 2010 and 2013.