Exploring the Contextual Influence of a Summer Jobs Program on Youth Arrest: Evidence from New York City

Abstract

Government-sponsored job programs have gained significant attention in recent years, particularly the Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEPs), which connect young people to government-subsidized jobs during the summer months. Originally designed to improve youth employment, SYEPs have also been proposed as a policy to combat youth crime in the summer when youth typically face increased risks of crime, injury, and victimization (Sepúlveda & Hutton, 2019). Evidence supports this idea, indicating that participation in SYEPs is linked to lower rates of arrest, arraignment, conviction, and incarceration, with effects varying by youth’s race, age, gender, and prior justice system involvement (Gelber et al., 2016; Heller, 2014; Kessler et al., 2022; Modestino, 2019). Prior research suggests that neighborhood context may also condition the effects of SYEP participation on criminal justice outcomes, but this has not been systematically evaluated. This dissertation addresses this gap by examining whether neighborhood factors, such as disadvantage and police stop, question, and frisk (SQF) activity, shape SYEP’s effect on youth arrests. Analyzing data from 129,098 youth aged 16 to 21 to who applied to the New York City SYEP between 2006 to 2008, I find that effects of SYEP on short-term and long-term arrests were nuanced and may differ based on the applicants’ residential context and racial/ethnic identity. The dissertation contributes to the broader discourse on summer job programs and discusses critical considerations for policymakers.