A systematic review aggregated the results of 78 Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) on family/early parenting training programs and found a statistically significant average effect of these programs in terms of reducing children’s behavioral problems, such as problematic behaviors, delinquency, and antisocial behavior [1]. Based on this review, the Crime Solutions platform classifies this type of program as effective to reduce the prevalence of problematic behaviors among children, such as juvenile delinquency or antisocial behavior.
Early childhood home visitation programs have also been evaluated by the Crime Reduction Toolkit platform based on two systematic reviews. This intervention is classified as effective, as the evidence from these reviews suggests that, overall, home visits have a positive effect in terms of reducing child abuse and neglect, as well as reducing the victimization of those children in future episodes of violence, in addition to reducing episodes of domestic violence between parents. The evidence indicates that these interventions seem to be more successful in homes with a low socioeconomic status; and programs that used nurses and mental health workers were found to be more effective than programs that used only social workers. In addition, programs that included prenatal and postnatal visits were more effective than those that only included postnatal visits [2] [3].
The Crime Solutions platform also classifies child maltreatment prevention programs as effective to reduce episodes of child abuse, neglect, and maltreatment. In this case, the platform relied on three systematic reviews that focused on these programs [4] [5] [6]. Although one of them did not find any statistically significant effects [4], the other two found considerable effects, an 11%-26% reduction in the likelihood of incidence of these episodes in the treatment group, when compared to the control group [5] [6].