Crime / Violence Prevention

Top Tier Updated: Jan 12, 2018

Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) Sexual Assault Resistance Program

Multi-site randomized controlled trial shows a sizable reduction in the incidence of rape.

Near Top Tier Updated: Jan 12, 2018

Parent Management Training – The Oregon Model

Randomized controlled trial shows sizable decrease in criminal activity of the boys over nine years.

Near Top Tier Updated: Feb 26, 2026

Big Brothers Big Sisters Community-Based Mentoring

Randomized controlled trials show sizable decrease in youth substance use and delinquent behavior.

Suggestive Tier Updated: Mar 6, 2023

Treatment Foster Care Oregon

Randomized controlled trials show sizable reductions in youths’ criminal activity and (for girls) teen pregnancy.

Suggestive Tier Updated: Feb 22, 2018

Reading for Life

Randomized controlled trial shows sizable reduction in re-arrest rates.

Suggestive Tier Updated: Jul 22, 2020

Multisystemic Therapy

Several randomized controlled trials show sizable reductions in youth criminal activity; others do not.

Suggestive Tier Updated: Jan 25, 2018

Montreal Prevention Program

Randomized controlled trial shows a sizable increase in high school graduation rates, and decrease in criminal behavior, in early adulthood.

Top Tier

Programs shown in well-conducted RCTs, carried out in typical community settings, to produce sizable, sustained effects on important outcomes. Top Tier evidence includes a requirement for replication – specifically, the demonstration of such effects in two or more RCTs conducted in different implementation sites, or, alternatively, in one large multi-site RCT. Such evidence provides confidence that the program would produce important effects if implemented faithfully in settings and populations similar to those in the original studies.
Near Top Tier

Programs shown to meet almost all elements of the Top Tier standard, and which only need one additional step to qualify. This category primarily includes programs that meet all elements of the Top Tier standard in a single study site, but need a replication RCT to confirm the initial findings and establish that they generalize to other sites. This is best viewed as tentative evidence that the program would produce important effects if implemented faithfully in settings and populations similar to those in the original study.
Suggestive Tier

Programs that have been evaluated in one or more well-conducted RCTs (or studies that closely approximate random assignment) and found to produce sizable positive effects, but whose evidence is limited by only short-term follow-up, effects that fall short of statistical significance, or other factors. Such evidence suggests the program may be an especially strong candidate for further research, but does not yet provide confidence that the program would produce important effects if implemented in new settings.