Performance Evaluation of USAID/Mexico's Crime and Violence Prevention Activity

This performance evaluation gauges Juntos para la Prevención de la Violencia (JPV)'s effectiveness in promoting reductions in crime and violence levels by strengthening local prevention systems (LPSs) and reducing the likelihood of youth participating in crime and violence. Even though the program successfully increased awareness and positioned the prevention agenda, the generation of sustainable and multisector collaboration achieved mixed results. We find that specialization and...
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This performance evaluation gauges Juntos para la Prevención de la Violencia (JPV)'s effectiveness in promoting reductions in crime and violence levels by strengthening local prevention systems (LPSs) and reducing the likelihood of youth participating in crime and violence. Even though the program successfully increased awareness and positioned the prevention agenda, the generation of sustainable and multisector collaboration achieved mixed results. We find that specialization and working with diverse leadership are desirable. JPV technical assistance activities supported the development of programs with enhanced design, delivery, and coverage to promote evidence-based policy implementation. However, challenges remain in addressing the underlying causes of violence and preventing recidivism. Also, enhancing the capacity of the public sector to work with youth-at-risk remains largely unaddressed. The improved practices, lessons learned, and policy impacts were not evident because the implemented solutions lacked appropriate and timely evaluation. Preliminary analysis shows that better targeting and wider coverage are required to reduce community crime and violence sustainably. Further interventions are needed to promote protective factors, interrupt the community and family dynamics that produce antisocial behaviors, and expand the offer of substance abuse treatment. In the next phase, we will perform focus groups with the beneficiaries of direct interventions to better understand which components might have worked and why. We will also collect data on at-risk youth in the targeted municipalities through a representative sample of communities with high homicide rates to measure the potential impact of JPV activities on individual-level exposure and attitudes toward violence.