Reducing crime and violence: Experimental evidence from cognitive behavioral therapy in Liberia

Previously circulated as "Reducing Crime and Violence: Experimental Evidence on Adult Noncognitive Investments in Liberia." For implementation we thank Global Communities and the Network for Empowerment and Progressive Initiatives (NEPI). For comments we thank Thomas Abt, Jeannie Annan, Alex Coppock, Stefano Dellavigna, Ruben Enikolopov, Roland Fryer, Don Green, Jonas Hjort, Macartan Humphreys, Dean Karlan, Larry Katz, Shamus Khan, Winston Lin, Jens Ludwig, Mattias Lundberg, Sendhil Mullainathan, Anandi Mani, Chris Muller, Suresh Naidu, Jonathan Pinckney, Vincent Pons, Nancy Qian, Steve Radelet, Gautam Rao, Adam Reich, Alix Rule, Cyrus Samii, Rachel Strohm, Francesco Trebbi, Eric Verhoogen, the referees, and participants at numerous conferences and seminars. This study was funded by the National Science Foundation (SES-1317506), the World Bank’s Learning on Gender and Conflict in Africa (LOGiCA) trust fund, the World Bank’s Italian Children and Youth (CHYAO) trust fund, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) via the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), a Vanguard Charitable Trust, the American People through the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) DCHA/CMM office, and the Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard University (Cohort 5). The contents of this study are the responsibility of authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their employers, funding agencies, or governments. Emma Tsui trained our qualitative researchers. Philip Blue, Natalie Carlson, Samantha DeMartino, Camelia Dureng, Mathilde Emeriau, Yuequan Guo, Brittany Hill, Tricia Koroknay-Palicz, Rebecca Littman, Ryan Luby, Ben Morse, Richard Peck, Patryk Perkowski, Colombine Peze-Heidsieck, Katherine Rodrigues, Carmel Salhi, Joe St. Clair, Helen Smith, Gwendolyn Taylor, Abel Welwean, Prince Williams, Xing Xia, Adam Xu, and John Zayzay provided research assistance through Innovations for Poverty Action. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

• online appendix

• May 20, 2015
• December 18, 2015