Behavior change programs offer good value-for-money given the substantial costs to society imposed by crime and violence. Researchers estimated that one program’s benefits were 3.5 to 18 times as large as its costs. The program reduced social harms through averted homicides and shootings, saving US$182,000 to US$916,000 per participant. (These estimates varied based on assumptions the researchers made, such as the social cost of different crimes or the likelihood of underreported crimes.) The Sit-D training program for police officers saved an estimated US$1,057 per officer over four months due to fewer injuries, offsetting program costs.

Effective programs often use simple curricula delivered by facilitators with similar backgrounds to participants. For example, in a program in the United States, facilitators often came from the same neighborhoods as participants and the program did not require them to have specialized training in psychology or social work. These approaches are easier to replicate at lower cost. Researchers estimate that the program’s societal benefits were 5 to 30 times greater than its costs (cost of US$1,850 per participant per year).  

Programs should be targeted to people at the highest risk of engaging in crime and violence. These participants often changed their behavior the most, driving the largest impacts and cost-effectiveness. In the United States, when outreach workers referred men at the highest risk of gun violence to a group-based CBT and employment program, they observed fewer arrests and victimizations for shootings and homicides. By contrast, participants referred to the program through an algorithm did not see the same changes, possibly because outreach workers better identified individuals likely to engage with the program.

Encouraging results across income settings highlight the potential for cross-context learning to guide future program design and adaptation. For example, in South Africa, J-PAL and the Western Cape Government collaboratively designed and piloted a CBT-inspired program to address violence in schools, drawing on a previously evaluated program and adapting it to the South African context with local curriculum experts. Investing in strong learning partnerships can help with translating evidence to new contexts.

Expanding the reach of behavior change techniques is a promising direction for future research and programming. These approaches could be adapted to help a wider range of people navigate high-stress situations and avoid harmful decisions, including corrections and other security officers, people on probation, or people involved in organized crime. However, evidence on these groups is limited. New interventions should be carefully tested and adapted.