Youth Employment as a Violence Prevention Strategy: A Systematic Review

• In Event: School-Based Crime Prevention: Strategies for Youth Development

Abstract

Youth employment programs are often identified as effective youth violence prevention strategies. The adult offender literature supports the notion that work can accelerate the process of desistance, but a systematic review of the empirical literature for youth paints an ambiguous picture and suggests that employment has limited to no benefit for violence and even can be harmful for some youth. Some of the ambiguity arises from treating different types of programs as homogenous (e.g. summer versus sustained employment, vocational versus job placement programs, employment training versus on-the-job experience). Evaluations of different types of programs are few, and methodological quality of these studies is also highly variable. Evaluated approaches often focus on high-risk youth (e.g., youth with a violent or delinquent history) thereby obscuring whether employment may be effective at preventing onset of violence and crime. Finally, the benefits of youth employment programs on financial, employment, or skills acquisition outcomes are, at times, inappropriately extrapolated for youth violence outcomes. This review provides a framework for categorizing youth employment strategies, and in so doing allows for more precise assessments of the relationship between youth employment and violence and recidivism. Gaps in the empirical evaluation literature and future research directions are identified.

Authors

• Sarah Bacon, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• Corinne David-Ferdon, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention