Projects

Lab Projects

Project Photo

Gun Violence Reduction in Baltimore

Tags: Baltimore Maryland Violence Prevention

The City of Baltimore is launching an ambitious new effort to cut down on gun violence across the city, and is collaborating with the CJP to design strategies that reduce shootings in […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Thrive Academy Study: An Evaluation of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services Initiative to Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence

Tags: Baltimore Maryland Violence Prevention

The Crime and Justice Policy Lab is partnering with the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services to conduct an evaluation of the Thrive Academy. The Thrive Academy is designed to target youth most […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

An Evaluation of Citywide Street Lighting Upgrades on Gun Violence

Tags: Philadelphia Urban Planning and Crime Violence Prevention

The Philadelphia Energy Authority is engaging in one of the most ambitious public infrastructure projects in the United States by upgrading the entire light network of the city with energy-efficient “smart” LED […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Building the Local Capacity and Evidence Base for Crime and Violence Prevention in the Caribbean

Tags: International

The Crime and Justice Policy Lab and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) share a common priority: finding effective and socially productive ways to reduce crime and violence—particularly among young people. Over […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

The Last Mile Evaluation

Tags: Reentry

The Last Mile (TLM) has provided courses on computer programming, web development, and entrepreneurship to incarcerated individuals for over ten years. The courses aim to teach returning citizens invaluable, marketable skills as […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

The Boston Family Project

Tags: Boston Impact of Crime

The Boston Family Project is an in-depth research study that aims to understand how community gun violence affects Greater Boston Area families across multiple generations. We’re looking at the long-term impact of […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Determining the Effects of Street Cleaning on Gun Violence: The Clean Streets Intervention

Tags: Philadelphia Urban Planning and Crime Violence Prevention

The objective of this project is to determine the effectiveness of a street cleaning intervention on gun violence. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) launched the LandCare Block Cleanup Program in July with […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Shannon Community Safety Initiative

Tags: Massachusetts

Since 2006, the Massachusetts Legislature has appropriated funds to support the Shannon Community Safety Initiative (CSI) aimed at reducing gang violence across the Commonwealth. Administered by the Massachusetts Office of Grants and […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Hampden Stepdown Program

Tags: Massachusetts

In partnership with researchers at Northeastern University, CJP researchers are assisting in evaluating the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office’s (HCSO) Step-Down Program. The step-down program is NIJ-funded and the investigation involves a difference-in-difference […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Tracking the Sale and Spread of Illegal Guns in the US

Tags: National

Leveraging an innovative partnership with online payment company PayPal, in 2020 the CJP formed of a research collaborative designed to better understand illegal firearm trafficking and financing in the United States. Partners […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Exploring the Effects of Civic Justice on Offending Patterns in Mexico

Tags: International

Civic Justice is a preventative approach to minor offenses based on community courts, restorative justice, and problem-oriented policing components. The goal of the model is to reduce recidivism and escalation to more […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Field Testing and Validating Risk Assessment Tools in Latin America and the Caribbean

Tags: International

For the past several decades, many Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries have been facing increasing levels of youth involvement in crime and violence. This issue is a top priority for the […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Community of Practice with Joyce

Tags: Violence Prevention

Community Violence Intervention (CVI) programs have enormous potential to save lives and improve justice system outcomes across a wide range of cities and counties. Many innovative jurisdictions are currently either piloting new […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Somerville Police Alternatives and Co-Response

Tags: Massachusetts Policing

CJP, in collaboration with the City of Somerville Department of Racial and Social Justice, is creating a primer on the city’s public safety response landscape. The primer will discuss the current landscape […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Prosecutors and Criminal Justice Reform: Research Partnership with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office

Tags: Philadelphia

Penn CJP researchers is partnering with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office (DAO) to conduct research on the role of prosecutor-driven policies in improving fairness and efficiency in the criminal justice system. The […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Evaluating Philadelphia’s Group Violence Intervention

Tags: Philadelphia

In partnership with the Philadelphia Office of Violence Prevention and the Urban Affairs Coalition, CJP researchers are evaluating the Philadelphia Group Violence Intervention (GVI), an evidence-based approach to reducing group-involved violence. GVI […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Crime Prevention through Streamlined Information Sharing

Tags: Philadelphia Policing

A critical factor in data-driven policing strategies is the ability to plan, collect, analyze, disseminate, and evaluate information being provided to street officers and investigators. To do this effectively and efficiently, data […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Improving Treatment for Juvenile Justice

Tags: Philadelphia

In February of 2019, the Philadelphia DAO established new juvenile justice policies aimed at improving the treatment of and outcomes for youth within the Juvenile Justice system and decreasing the use of […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Developing New Tools to Fight the Opioid Epidemic

Tags: Boston Massachusetts

The opioid epidemic in Massachusetts (and the U.S. more broadly) shows no sign of subsiding; there is growing awareness among policymakers that expanding treatment alone may not be enough to curtail the […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Preventing Community Violence in Oakland, California: Operation Ceasefire

Tags: California Oakland Policing

Researchers at CJP have worked on several projects related to community violence prevention strategies. Our ongoing work in Oakland is based on several of these previous projects, notably Boston’s Operation Ceasefire focused […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Building Evidence on Security and Community Resilience in the Caribbean

Tags: International

Reducing crime and violence among youth is a high priority for citizens and governments in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean (ESC). While considerable progress has been made to understand the factors that […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Forming Better Police-Community Connections: Body Worn Cameras

Tags: Boston Massachusetts Policing

We are currently working on three randomized evaluations of programs that study the effects of equipping officers with body-worn cameras. These projects are ongoing with the Boston Police Department, the Las Vegas […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Forming Better Police-Community Connections: Procedural Justice

Tags: Cambridge Massachusetts Policing

We’re working on several projects that examine the ways in which new policy initiatives could be used to change interactions between police and community members. We are currently collaborating with the Cambridge […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Promoting Fair and Just Policing in Guyana

Tags: International

Police play a critical role in promoting public safety, and there is perhaps no debate more urgent in Guyana—and in the broader region of Latin America and the Caribbean—than the question of […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Transforming Communities with College Bound Dorchester in Boston

Tags: Boston Massachusetts

For the last few years we have been working with the non-profit College Bound Dorchester to help them design a research project surrounding their new “Boston Uncornered” program. Boston Uncornered seeks to […]

Read about this project

Project Photo

Limiting Gun Violence in California

Tags: California

The Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis and CCR researchers Glenn Pierce and Anthony Braga are working to evaluate California’s Armed and Prohibited Persons System (APPS), which is a law enforcement […]

Read about this project