The Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project in Chicago

violence arrests and serious violence arrests, at p = 0.05 levels of statistical significance. Adeath in the family is also correlated with increased total offenses and property offenses reportedby the youth (p # 0.05) at Time III. Thus, household and family problems are stronglyassociated with increased levels of self-reported offending by youth, although the character ofthese household or family problems seems to vary somewhat between Time I and Time III.A variety of personal and health crises may be inferred from responses to questionsasking whether the youth had undergone treatment for a drug, alcohol, or physical or mentalhealthproblem. At Time I, a small number of youth reported having received treatment formental-health problems, and such report is highly correlated with a reduction in self-reportedtotal offenses (r = -0.263, p # 0.01), total arrests (r = -0.254, p # 0.01), property offenses (r =-0.313, p # 0.001) and property arrests (r = -0.274, p # 0.01), as well as drug use and violencearrests (p # 0.05). Treatment for alcohol problems is also associated at Time I with reducedlevels of self-reported drug selling (r = -0.224, p # 0.01) and property arrests (p # 0.05). Noneof these treatment effects are statistically significantly related to reduced offending patterns atTime III, however.In sum, a range of serious family/household problems is highly correlated with many ofthe youth’s self-reported patterns of offending. We may infer that a range of personal physicaland mental-health problems is associated with the youth’s offending behavior. There is alsosome evidence that treatment is useful in the reduction of some of the youth’s own personal andoffending problems. The question arises as to whether these family and youth crises andproblems were adequately identified and treated during the course of the Project. Social andhealth interventions may contribute directly and indirectly to a reduction in offending. Our10.19