The Youth Violence Prevention Program

The Idea

The City of Chicago should implement a pilot program, called the Youth Violence Prevention Program, which pays youth during their 8th and 9th grade years for attending and doing well in school and extracurricular activities.  The program would also punish youth for failing a class, skipping class, and/or gun and drug possession; it would do so by taking away payment and requiring community service.

Key Facts

• A total of 510 people were murdered in Chicago in 2008, and nearly half were between the ages of 10 and 25.
• Research suggests that violent crime costs the City of Chicago $2.5 billion per year; this includes direct and indirect costs of crime.
• Studies show that young criminals are overwhelmingly high school dropouts; they are most likely to begin engaging in violent activity during their 8th and 9th grade years.
• Research also shows that most people who commit crime will not be criminals their entire lives.