Helping troubled kids become stable adults while staying within budget is the goal of a new method that uses cost-benefit analysis to evaluate how well delinquency prevention programs work.
The cost-benefit analysis method is explained in a recent UW-Madison compiled report, 'What Works, Wisconsin: What Science Tells Us About Cost-Effective Programs for Juvenile Delinquency Programs.' By utilizing three decades of research on delinquency programs, it concluded that analyzing delinquency prevention programs through a cost versus benefit framework could help Wisconsin make a greater impact with its limited monetary resources.
Despite its recent development, the cost-benefit analysis method is already having an impact.
'County extension agents have already contacted me about using the findings to allocate funds, and we can help them by pointing to concrete data,' said Stephen Small, UW-Madison professor of human development, and one of the authors of the report. 'Finally being able to translate what we know into a language that others can readily understand is an exciting development.'
Previously, prevention programs have been evaluated only by their results with no regard for their costs. However, the new method looks at the operating costs of a particular prevention program and compares them to the benefits that the program produces. For the purposes of the report, the benefits were measured in dollars. They included savings to the state, such as legal expense, housing of offenders and savings to the offender, in terms of economic productivity.
Indeed, there were some fiscally surprising findings. For every dollar invested in high quality pre-school programs, the state and individual saved an average of $10 from the decrease in delinquency that resulted from the excellent early care. Likewise, home visitation programs yielded $5 in savings for every dollar in cost, and therapeutic interventions returned about $9 for every dollar invested.
'When they're done right, certain prevention and intervention programs reduce delinquent behavior,' Small said.
This potential reduction in delinquency is significant, considering the average cost per child in the most effective prevention programs was under $10,000 per year. By comparison, housing a single juvenile offender in a Wisconsin correctional facility cost the state $68,255 in 2004, according to the report. Also, this figure ignores the personal economic loss for the offender. Delinquent behavior often goes hand in hand with lower educational and occupational achievement, and, consequently, lower wages throughout the offender's lifetime.
The Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance and the Wisconsin Governor's Juvenile Justice Commission requested the report, which, according to Small, is only a first step in a long process.
'Early on we are just trying to get the information out there, then there is the action phase in which we might more actively change policy,' Small said. The report concluded with recommendations for changing how to make funding decisions, how to train practitioners, how to evaluate and implement programs and how state agencies coordinate prevention initiatives.
Despite the promises of success, some have found it unsettling to evaluate how beneficial a program will be based only on how much money it will save and not presumably how much it will help kids lead better lives.
'Most don't like to put human lives in monetary terms,' Small said. 'However, more is gained than lost. With the current situation'tight budgets and cutbacks'the bottom line is financial. It has been gradually accepted as necessary.'
