Evaluating the Impact of the Project Safe Neighborhoods Anti-Gang Initiative

Based on the strategic problem-solving model of Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Department of Justice announced a new Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative (CAGI) in 2006 and competitively awarded $2.5 million to each of six sites to implement anti-gang prevention, enforcement, and re-entry strategies. In 2007, four more sites were funded. This study will conduct an assessment of the implementation and impact of these anti-gang efforts in all six 2006 sites (and in the four 2007 sites, to the extent that funds are available). Site visits to all sites will be made to assist the sites in developing performance measures and collecting a common set of outcome measures that will be used to assess the conduct of the programs and determine, if possible, their impact on gang crime. In addition, at least one site will be selected for an in-depth comprehensive evaluation. In this site, major interventions will be identified and a process evaluation of the implementation, operation, and outcome of these interventions will be conducted. Utiizing a quasi-experimental design, comparison areas for tracting gang crime for area-based interventions will be identified, as will comparison groups of individuals for measuring outcomes of individual-based interventions. In all of these activities, the MSU team wil work closely with local research partners, where there is a researcher who is part of the CAGI task force.

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