The challenge
After two civil wars, a small number of poor young men in Monrovia were involved in much of the city's crime and violence.
The case
From 2010 to 2012 the Liberian organisation NEPI ran the Sustainable Transformation of Youth in Liberia program for 999 high-risk men aged 18 to 35 in Monrovia, many of them former fighters or unhoused. Half were randomly chosen for eight weeks of group cognitive behavioural therapy, led by facilitators who had been through the program themselves, aimed at self-control, self-image and dealing with anger without violence. Separately, half were randomly given a one-off US$200 grant. Ten years later, therapy reduced an index of antisocial behaviour, and men who got both therapy and cash reported 49% fewer crimes in the past two weeks; therapy alone, 54% fewer. Cash alone had no lasting effect.
Why it worked
A short, cheap therapy program run by non-specialists changed behaviour for a decade, at a cost of US$530 per participant for therapy and cash combined. Neither the therapy nor the cash improved long-term incomes, so it works as violence prevention, not an economic program.
Sources
- Blattman, C., Chaskel, S., Jamison, J. C., & Sheridan, M. (2023). Cognitive behavioral therapy reduces crime and violence over ten years: Experimental evidence. American Economic Review: Insights, 5(4), 527–545.
- J-PAL. The Impact of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Cash Transfers on High-Risk Young Men in Liberia (evaluation summary).
- Innovations for Poverty Action (2022). Cognitive behavioral therapy as a cost-effective tool for sustained violence reduction: 10-year follow-up evaluation of the Sustainable Transformation of Youth program in Liberia. Policy brief.
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