Long-Term Follow-Up of the National Evaluation of Gang Resistance Education and Training Project

This proposal would extend data collected during the National Evaluation of the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program, which was a randomized controlled trial of a school-based gang and violence prevention program. The evaluation included measures of a variety of malleable risk and protective factors across the individual, school, peer, family, and community domains. This primary prevention program demonstrated effectiveness in reducing gang membership and improving adolescent attitudes toward police. The proposal seeks to extend the existing National Evaluation of G.R.E.A.T. to examine key transitions from adolescence into young adulthood 10 years after the last wave of data collection. This three-year study (2022-2024) includes the collection of information on offending and victimization, age-graded social bonds, and malleable risk and protective factors. The proposal main aims include: (1) explore the age-graded positive and negative turning points that impact criminal persistence and desistance; (2) examine the continued impact of malleable risk and protective factors that occur in adolescence on criminal and associated outcomes in young adulthood; and (3) provide a long-term follow-up evaluation of the G.R.E.A.T. program impacts on its goals, particularly reduced violence and gang membership, and improved attitudes toward the police.