
The WestEd Justice & Prevention Research Center collaborates with partners in funding, implementing, and evaluating programs that promote positive youth development, physical health and well-being, and prevention of risk behaviors, including violence.
Partners include community, justice, and education agencies, universities, foundations, and research firms and consultants.
Center researchers conduct policy-relevant and methodologically sound research studies for key decisionmakers, including government officials, foundation staff, faculty and researchers, and practitioners. Researchers conduct process, implementation, and impact evaluations; systematic reviews and meta-analyses of existing studies; qualitative data analyses; quantitative analyses using secondary data sets; and scans of current practice and policy. Various Center study goals include:
- Preventing crime and violence
- Improving the adult and juvenile justice systems
- Increasing the safety of children, adults, schools and communities
- Strengthening efforts to prevent high-risk behavior
The Center’s work focuses on a number of key issues, including:
- How suspensions and other formal school punishments may lead young persons, particularly vulnerable populations, to become disengaged in school and subsequently involved in crime
- Determinants and consequences of urban gun violence and public health approaches to prevent high-risk young men from involvement in gangs and violence
- The role police officers play in school matters and whether it leads to more youth—particularly boys of color—getting involved with the formal juvenile justice system for offenses schools normally handle internally
- Bullying and victimization (reported and unreported)
Research and Evaluation Studies
Below is a list of the Center’s research and evaluation studies, former and current. Click on the titles for more information.
- Bullying and Disability: Student Survey Analysis
- Comprehensive Social Services for Vulnerable Adults: Evaluation of Better Futures Minnesota
- Juvenile Drug Courts Guidelines: Policies and Practices Scan
- Massachusetts Safe & Successful Youth Initiative Evaluation
- “More Than a Dream” Teen Pregnancy Program: Randomized Controlled Trial
- Multi-Component Violence Prevention Initiative: Field-Initiated Research Study
- Police-Led Crime Prevention Programs in Schools: Systematic Review
- Restorative Justice Practices in U.S. Schools
- What Works to Make Schools Safe: Campus Shield Program
Stay Informed
Keep current on the latest WestEd Justice & Prevention Research Center reports, research studies, projects, events, and news. Subscribe to this monthly update. You can also subscribe by sending an email to Center Director Anthony Petrosino at apetros@wested.org.