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Evaluation of Communities That Care—Effects on Municipal Youth Crime Rates in Victoria, Australia: 2010–2019

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Abstract

Internationally, youth crime is a significant social problem. Violent youth crime has been rising over the past decade in the state of Victoria, Australia. Communities That Care (CTC) is a coalition training process designed to prevent youth crime. There has been limited evaluation outside the USA. Using a non-experimental design, this study employed official state crime statistics to evaluate the impact on crime as the five-phase CTC process was implemented between 2010 and 2019 across communities in Victoria. The standard five-phase CTC implementation cycle was supplemented with universal programs to reduce sales and supply of alcohol to underage youth (under 18 years). Growth models evaluated community trends in youth crime (all, person, property and deception and other), comparing communities that implemented CTC at phase 4 or greater with communities that had not implemented CTC. In accord with the hypotheses, the study found significant reductions in crimes associated with CTC over the period between 2010 and 2019. A 2% annual reduction in risk was observed for crimes against persons for all age groups (IRR = 0.98, 95% CI [0.96, 0.998]). A 5% annual reduction was observed for crimes of property and deception for adolescents aged between 10 and 17 years (IRR = 0.95, 95% CI [0.90, 0.99]). These findings support CTC as an intervention for preventing youth crime at a population level. Future studies should evaluate intervention mechanisms and economic benefits.

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Funding

We received support from the National Health and Medical Research Council (APP1087781), Australian Research Council (LP100200755), and the State Government of Victoria (Department of Justice and Regulation, VicRoads and Transport Accident Commission).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

    Bosco Rowland, Charles Abrahams, Rachel Smith, Amber Osborn, Jess Hall, Tina Hosseini, Heidi Renner & John W. Toumbourou

  2. School of Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

    Adrian B. Kelly

  3. Biostatistics Unit, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

    Mohammadreza Mohebbi

  4. School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences & Centre for Sport Research, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

    Peter Kremer

  5. Deakin Health Economics, Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

    Julie Abimanyi-Ochom, Rob Carter & Joanne Williams

  6. Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Parkville, Australia

    Joanne Williams, Rachel Smith & John W. Toumbourou

  7. School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia

    Joanne Williams

  8. School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia

    Julie Abimanyi-Ochom, Rob Carter & Joanne Williams

Authors
  1. Bosco Rowland
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  2. Adrian B. Kelly
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  3. Mohammadreza Mohebbi
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  4. Peter Kremer
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  5. Charles Abrahams
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  6. Julie Abimanyi-Ochom
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  9. Rachel Smith
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  10. Amber Osborn
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  11. Jess Hall
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  12. Tina Hosseini
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  13. Heidi Renner
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  14. John W. Toumbourou
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bosco Rowland.

Ethics declarations

Ethics Approval

The intention to evaluate the Communities That Care (CTC) program was outlined in the research funding proposals and ethics protocol approved by Deakin University.

Informed Consent

Communities implementing the Communities That Care Framework provided informed consent for their data to be used in research and evaluation of Communities That Care.

Conflict of Interest

The following authors served in the not-for-profit company Communities That Care Ltd that was evaluated in this paper: Rowland (current Chief Executive Officer, CEO) and Toumbourou (Director and ex-CEO). Conflict of interest management strategies were approved by their Deakin University employer.

Disclaimer

The funding agencies had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation, writing of the report, or decision to submit the paper for publication. The corresponding author had full access to all data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication. The authors declare their independence from the funders and from any tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceutical or gaming industries or anybody substantially funded by one of these organisations.

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Rowland, B., Kelly, A.B., Mohebbi, M. et al. Evaluation of Communities That Care—Effects on Municipal Youth Crime Rates in Victoria, Australia: 2010–2019. Prev Sci 23, 24–35 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-021-01297-6

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