Causal Research on Community Safety and the Criminal Justice System
Causal Research on Community Safety and the Criminal Justice System supports researchers studying U.S. policies and interventions to build causal evidence for safer communities and better justice outcomes.
Funder: Arnold Ventures
Due Dates: Rolling (Letters of interest) | Invitation only (Full proposals)
Funding Amounts: Median award approximately $250,000 over 2–4 years; no budget ceiling or fixed performance period
Summary: Supports rigorous causal research on U.S. policies and interventions to improve community safety and criminal justice outcomes.
Key Information: Awardees must pre-register their study and publicly release their research and analysis plan before study commencement.
Description
Arnold Ventures’ Criminal Justice Initiative funds causal research on policies, practices, and interventions that can make communities safer and the criminal justice system fairer and more effective. Submissions are welcome across all issues of crime and criminal justice, provided they evaluate interventions in the United States and measure real-world behavior. The goal is to expand the evidence base of policies and practices rigorously shown to improve safety and justice system outcomes.
The program emphasizes designs that reliably isolate treatment effects, including difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, instrumental variables, and randomization. It seeks research that can inform policy change, including evaluations of existing innovations and new interventions. Arnold Ventures also aims to broaden participation in causal criminal justice research, encouraging researchers with varied backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.
