Six-to-One Social Benefit-to-Cost Efficiency in Youth Employment
Municipal youth violence prevention initiatives often require massive public expenditures on intensive programs whose economic costs exceed their measurable societal benefits. High fiscal burdens limit the scalability of public safety interventions in resource-constrained urban centers.
Picture this
Subsidizing temporary summer jobs functions like buying a low-cost security lock that prevents thousands of dollars in emergency hospital visits and property damage down the road. By spending a modest amount upfront per youth, cities save vastly larger sums in avoided criminal justice processing, victim injuries, and long-term incarceration.
What the evidence says
Social benefits from violent crime reduction in OSC+ were estimated to be nearly six times larger than program costs (~6:1 benefit-cost ratio). SYEP cost per participant was ~$1,400 ($1,463 in 2017 dollars), producing substantial overall reductions in incarceration and premature deaths at a fraction of alternative program costs.
- Who
- Chicago OSC+ program cohorts (5,216 youth ages 16–22) and NYC SYEP program (>30,000 youth per year across 2005–2008 cohorts; baseline neighborhood poverty >33%, >90% free lunch).
- How
- Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) evaluating monetized societal benefits of reduced violent crime arrests against per-participant program costs.
What to do
Allocate municipal public safety funds toward low-cost subsidized summer job lotteries to maximize monetized societal return on investment.
From the source
"Researchers estimate that the social benefits from the reduction in violence from the OSC+ program may be nearly six times larger than the program's costs."
Stopping a Bullet with a Summer Job