Reducing Crime and Violence: Experimental Evidence from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Liberia

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Blattman, Christopher; Jamison, Julian C.; Sheridan, Margaret
• 署名单位: University of Chicago; University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20150503
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 1165-1206
• 关键词: economics; PSYCHOLOGY; scale; intervention; metaanalysis; PUNISHMENT; efficacy; locus; work; boys

摘要

We show that a number of noncognitive skills and preferences, including patience and identity, are malleable in adults, and that investments in them reduce crime and violence. We recruited criminally engaged men and randomized one-half to eight weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy designed to foster self-regulation, patience, and a noncriminal identity and lifestyle. We also randomized $200 grants. Cash alone and therapy alone initially reduced crime and violence, but effects dissipated over time. When cash followed therapy, crime and violence decreased dramatically for at least a year. We hypothesize that cash reinforced therapy's impacts by prolonging learning-by-doing, lifestyle changes, and self-investment.