What Works to Prevent Urban Violence Among Proven Risk Young Men? The Safe and Successful Youth Initiative Evidence and Implementation Review

By Patricia E. Campie, Anthony Petrosino, et al.

The Massachusetts Safe and Successful Youth Initiative (SSYI) commissioned a review of the evidence underlying effective programs designed to reduce serious violence among targeted groups of young offenders. A Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) methodology was used to identify and determine the effectiveness of rigorous evaluation studies of programs most similar to the SSYI intervention. A review of the implementation science literature complemented the evidence review to determine what characteristics organizations should demonstrate in order to produce optimal results from their SSYI efforts. Taken together, the guidance from evaluations of effective programs and the characteristics of high quality implementation provide SSYI with valuable insight on enhancing and improving violence prevention efforts moving forward.

Boston: Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services, 2013. 50p.