Grants Announcement: Arnold Ventures Criminal Justice Research Grants in First Half of 2025 Demonstrate Its Ongoing Commitment to Evidence-Based Solutions

Rigorous evaluation, testing, and replication ensure that policymakers and practitioners have confidence that interventions can work across jurisdictions and populations.

Houston, TX (July 31, 2025) – In the first half of 2025, Arnold Ventures (AV) awarded approximately 50 new research grants through its open RFP for research on community safety and the criminal justice system. These grants, totaling over $15 million, demonstrate the philanthropy’s ongoing commitment to rigorously investigate pressing issues in public safety and develop, test, and replicate potential policy solutions. 

The first and second quarter grants support research in a variety of areas, including police recruitment, technology to aid law enforcement investigations, alternative crisis response, housing, treatment for substance use disorders, supervised release, police body-worn cameras and court outcomes, case screening, public defenders and case outcomes, juvenile incarceration, and the economic impact of criminal convictions. 

Grant awards also focused on programs and efforts that seek to reduce recidivism – and thus improve public safety – by providing support and programming to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. This includes cognitive behavioral therapy programs, credit access, apprenticeship opportunities, and more. 

“It is inspiring to see the wide variety of policies and programs being evaluated across the country,” said Jennifer Doleac, executive vice president of criminal justice at AV. ​“We know from experience that many promising interventions won’t have the impact we are hoping for. But some will, and these research studies will help us identify which ideas are effective and worth scaling.” 

Examples of funded grant applications are included here. This release covers a subset of grants that were committed, awarded, or fully executed in the first and second quarters of 2025. It is intended to be illustrative of the work that AV is funding in the criminal justice field and serve as a resource for academics and practitioners who might be interested in applying for funding or in the outcome of previously funded research. It is not a comprehensive summary of AV’s criminal justice grantmaking. Grant amounts are rounded to the nearest hundred dollars. 

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Arnold Ventures is a philanthropy that supports research to understand the root causes of America’s most persistent and pressing problems, as well as evidence-based solutions to address them. By focusing on systemic change, AV is working to improve the lives of American families, strengthen their communities, and promote their economic opportunity. Since Laura and John Arnold launched their foundation in 2008, the philanthropy has expanded, and Arnold Ventures’ focus areas include education, criminal justice, health, infrastructure, and public finance, advocating for bipartisan policy reforms that will lead to lasting, scalable change. The Arnolds became signatories of the Giving Pledge in 2010.

Community Safety

Name: The Causal and Heterogeneous Impacts of Housing: Evidence from the Allegheny Housing Assessment and Shelter
Description: This project uses an instrumental variables design to estimate the causal impact of two housing programs (permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing) on downstream outcomes including contact with the criminal justice system.
Geographic Focus: Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Grant Recipient: County of Allegheny
Principal Investigator(s): Felipe Diaz Klaassen, Matthew Pecenco, Pim Welle
Term: 2025 – 2026
Amount: $374,600

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Name: Fines, Fees, and Policing for Profit: Evidence from Policy Reforms in Missouri
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to estimate the causal effect of policy changes governing the municipal collection of fines and fees on policing patterns and public safety.
Geographic Focus: Missouri
Grant Recipient: Brown University
Principal Investigator(s): Jesse Bruhn, Brian Knight, Nathan Schiff
Term: 2025 – 2027
Amount: $296,700

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Name: Causal Effects of Particulate Matter Pollution on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
Description: This project uses an instrumental variables design to estimate the causal effects of fine particulate matter air pollution on violent crimes, specifically domestic violence and sexual assault.
Geographic Focus: United States
Grant Recipient: The University of Texas at Dallas
Principal Investigator(s): Anne Burton, Travis Roach
Term: 2025 – 2028
Amount: $164,300

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Name: The Effects of Police and Social Service Spending on Crime
Description: This project uses instrumental variables and regression discontinuity designs to evaluate the causal impact of municipal spending on crime rates in approximately 400 U.S. cities.
Geographic Focus: United States
Grant Recipient: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Principal Investigator(s): Brenden Beck, Joseph Antonelli
Term: 2025 – 2026
Amount: $231,200

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Name: The Use of Live 911 Technology in Policing: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Description: This project employs a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the causal impact of an emerging technology that allows officers to listen in to 911 calls as they travel to a crime scene (rather than getting information relayed by dispatch).

Geographic Focus: Irvine, California
Grant Recipient: Simon Fraser University
Principal Investigator(s): Rylan Simpson, Michael Topper
Term: 2025 – 2028
Amount: $243,100

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Name: Technological Change in Illicit Markets
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to evaluate the causal impact of mobile internet access on criminal coordination and illicit markets.
Geographic Focus: United States
Grant Recipient: Princeton University
Principal Investigator(s): Felipe Coy, Micaela Sviatschi, Pablo Zarate
Term: 2025 – 2028
Amount: $58,000

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Name: Officer Misconduct, Arrest Types, and Court Outcomes
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to estimate the causal effects of Kalven v. City of Chicago which made police misconduct records in Illinois subject to FOIA.
Geographic Focus: Chicago, Illinois
Grant Recipient: United States Naval Academy
Principal Investigator(s): Bocar Ba, Nayoung Rim, Roman Rivera
Term: 2025
Amount: $45,000

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Name: The Effects of Childhood Medicaid Access on Adult Involvement in the Criminal Justice System
Description: This project uses a difference-in-discontinuities design to estimate the causal impact of childhood Medicaid eligibility on criminal justice system contact in early adulthood.
Geographic Focus: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin. 
Grant Recipient: University of California at Berkeley
Principal Investigator(s): Hilary Hoynes, Joseph Broadus
Term: 2025 – 2027
Amount: $252,600

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Name: Mobile Crisis Response Teams Support Better Policing: Evidence from CAHOOTS
Description: This project uses difference-in-differences and instrumental variables designs to identify the causal impact of an alternative response model (CAHOOTS) where crisis response teams respond to designated 911 calls instead of the police.
Geographic Focus: Oregon
Grant Recipient: University of Oregon
Principal Investigator(s): Jonathan Davis, Samuel Norris, Yotam Shem-Tov, Chelsea Strickland
Term: 2025 – 2027
Amount: $299,800

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Name: The Effects of ShotSpotter on Shooting Fatality Rates
Description: This project uses regression discontinuity and difference-in-differences designs to study the causal effects of Shotspotter, a directional acoustic microphone system for detecting gunfire and alerting law enforcement, on shooting fatality rates.
Geographic Focus: Chicago, Illinois
Grant Recipient: University of Chicago
Principal Investigator(s): Terence Chau, Philip Cook, Henry Jacobsen, Javier Lopez, Jens Ludwig, Alejandro Roemer, Adam Soliman
Term: 2025 – 2027
Amount: $199,900

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Name: Addressing the Recruitment Crisis in Law Enforcement
Description: This project uses a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the causal impact of an educational intervention exposing university students to information about career pathways in law enforcement.
Geographic Focus: Florida
Grant Recipient: University of South Florida
Principal Investigator(s): Mateus Renno Santos, Chae Jaynes
Term: 2025 – 2028
Amount: $100,000

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Name: A Randomized Experiment to Target High Risk Gun Offenders in Denver, Colorado
Description: This project uses a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the causal impact of a chronic gun offender initiative run by the Denver Police Department.
Geographic Focus: Denver, Colorado
Grant Recipient: CRIME De-Coder
Principal Investigator(s): Andrew Wheeler, Jacob Herrara
Term: 2025 – 2028
Amount: $108,000

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Name: Do Community Rec Centers Deter Crime? Evidence from Baltimore
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to assess the causal impact of community rec center closings on crime and property values across neighborhoods in Baltimore.
Geographic Focus: Baltimore, Maryland
Grant Recipient: University of Maryland
Principal Investigator(s): Greg Midgette, Lauren Porter, Luke Spreen
Term: 2025 – 2026
Amount: $133,400

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Name: Marijuana and the Minimum Legal Purchase Age
Description: This project uses a regression discontinuity design to study the causal impact of marijuana and alcohol legal purchase availability at age 21.
Geographic Focus: United States
Grant Recipient: University of Oregon
Principal Investigator(s): Ben Hansen and Edward Rubin
Term: 2025 – 2028
Amount: $299,800

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Name: Case Closed: Bridging Gaps in Criminal Investigations for Racial Equity
Description: This project employs randomization and quasi-random variation in detective assignments to identify the causal determinants of successful criminal investigations and develop value-added models to distinguish between patrol and detective contributions.
Geographic Focus: United States
Grant Recipient: Northeastern University
Principal Investigator(s): Matthew Ross, CarlyWill Sloan
Term: 2025 – 2027
Amount: $297,400

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Name: Policing Minor Offenses and the Early-life Trajectory of Urban Men: Evidence from Linked Tax and Court Records
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to estimate the causal impact of exposure to frequent pedestrian stops and strict enforcement of minor offenses (i.e. stop-and-frisk) on arrest, education, and employment outcomes for young minority men.
Geographic Focus: New York City, New York
Grant Recipient: University of Notre Dame du Lac
Principal Investigator(s): Jonathan Tebes, Benjamin Goldman
Term: 2025 – 2027
Amount: $299,700

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Name: Illinois Stability Investment for Family Housing (SIFH) Program Evaluation
Description: This project uses a randomized controlled trial to study the causal impact of a large one-time cash transfer to families with children engaged in emergency homeless services on a variety of outcomes including victimization and criminal justice system contact.
Geographic Focus: Illinois
Grant Recipient: University of Chicago
Principal Investigator(s): Nour Abdul-Razzak, John Eric Humphries
Term: 2025 – 2029
Amount: $1,107,000

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Name: The Impact of DACA on Juvenile Crime
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to examine the causal impact of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on juvenile crime and delinquency.
Geographic Focus: Texas
Grant Recipient: Tulane University
Principal Investigator(s): Barbara Lundebjerg, Douglas Harris
Term: 2025 – 2026
Amount: $16,300

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Name: Understanding the Relationship Between Homeless Housing Facilities and Crime
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to evaluate the causal impact of permanent supportive housing and interim housing facilities serving LA’s homeless population on local crime.
Geographic Focus: Los Angeles, California
Grant Recipient: RAND Corporation
Principal Investigator(s): Jason Ward, Rosanna Smart, Roland Neil, Sarah Hunter
Term: 2025 – 2026
Amount: $430,100

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Name: The Effects of Drug Decriminalization (and Recriminalization) on Criminal Justice and Public Health Outcomes
Description: This project uses synthetic difference-in-differences designs to assess the causal impact of changes in Oregon’s drug policy régime on overdoses and criminal justice outcomes.
Geographic Focus: Oregon
Grant Recipient: University of Oregon
Principal Investigator(s): Benjamin Hansen, Kyutaro Matsuzawa, David Hall
Term: 2025 – 2028
Amount: $524,500

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Name: Evaluating the Impact of Algorithmic Policing on Crime
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to estimate the causal impact of algorithmic predictive policing strategies.
Geographic Focus: United States
Grant Recipient: University of Minnesota
Principal Investigator(s): Jeffrey Clement, Kartik Ganju
Term: 2025 – 2027
Amount: $507,100

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Name: The Impact of Automated Policing Technologies on Racial Disparities in Law Enforcement
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to measure the causal impact of facial recognition and predictive policing technologies.
Geographic Focus: United States
Grant Recipient: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Principal Investigator(s): Fabio Duarte, Timur Abbiasov
Term: 2025 – 2026
Amount: $360,100

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Name: Kinship Diversion from Foster Care: An Analysis of Prevalence and Causal Impacts on Crime
Description: This project uses an instrumental variables design to estimate the causal impact of kinship diversion on criminal justice outcomes among affected children and parents.
Geographic Focus: Wisconsin
Grant Recipient: University of Wisconsin
Principal Investigator(s): Jason Baron, Lawrence Berger, Sarah Font, Ezra Goldstein
Term: 2025 – 2027
Amount: $600,000

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Name: The Effect of ²⁴⁄₇ Sobriety on Recidivism and Economic Outcomes
Description: This project uses difference-in-differences and instrumental variables designs to evaluate a large-scale implementation of ²⁴⁄₇ sobriety.
Geographic Focus: North Dakota
Grant Recipient: RAND Corporation
Principal Investigator(s): Nancy Nicosia, Beau Kilmer, George Zuo, Rosanna Smart, Marika Booth
Term: 2025 – 2027
Amount: $849,700

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Name: The Impact of the 988 Crisis Helpline on the Use of Emergency Services and Hospital Visits
Description: This project uses regression discontinuity and difference-in-differences designs to assess the causal impact of the 988 call line for mental health emergencies on help seeking via 988, 911, and hospital visits.
Geographic Focus: United States
Grant Recipient: Vanderbilt University
Principal Investigator(s): Panka Bencsik
Term: 2025 – 2028
Amount: $275,500

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Name: Lifting the Bar
Description: This project uses a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the causal impact of Lifting the Bar, an intervention to reduce recidivism by enhancing teacher-student relationships when justice-involved youth return to school.
Geographic Focus: Chicago, Illinois, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Grant Recipient: Stanford University
Principal Investigator(s): Greg Walton, Monica Bhatt
Term: 2025 – 2026
Amount: $391,900

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Name: Cannabis Policy and Illicit Substance Use
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to study the causal impact of medical cannabidiol (CBD) policy on illicit opioid overdose deaths and crime.
Geographic Focus: United States
Grant Recipient: RAND Corporation
Principal Investigator(s): Rahi Abouk, David Powell
Term: 2025 – 2027
Amount: $206,400

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Name: The Effects of Body-Worn Cameras on Policing and Court Outcomes: Evidence from Virginia Criminal Courts
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to evaluate the causal impact of body-worn cameras on police interactions, court processes, and criminal case outcomes.
Geographic Focus: Virginia
Grant Recipient: Social Science Research Council
Principal Investigator(s): Katie Bollman
Term: 2025 – 2026
Amount: $117,800

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Name: Double Dealing: The Effect of Legalizing Recreational Marijuana on the Illegal Market
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to evaluate the causal impact of localized marijuana legalization on the market for marijuana in nearby, non-legalization states.
Geographic Focus: Washington and Oregon
Grant Recipient: University of California, Davis
Principal Investigator(s): Stephen Paolillo
Term: 2025
Amount: $67,600

Courts

Name: The Economic Impacts of Substance Abuse Rehabilitation: Evidence from U.S. Drug Courts
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to estimate the causal effects of specialized drug courts on criminal justice, economic, and health outcomes.
Geographic Focus: United States
Grant Recipient: Curators of the University of Missouri
Principal Investigator(s): Brittany Street, Garrett Anstreicher
Term: 2025 – 2027
Amount: $550,800

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Name: Impact of Digital Task Management and Performance Dashboards on High Priority Cases Outcomes
Description: This project uses a regression discontinuity design to evaluate the causal impact of prosecutors using digital checklists and performance reports to manage high-priority violent crime cases.
Geographic Focus: Shelby County, Tennessee
Grant Recipient: New Venture Fund
Principal Investigator(s): Kevin Himberger, Rory Pulvino
Term: 2025 – 2027
Amount: $296,100

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Name: Impact Evaluation of Supervised Release: An Instrumental Variable Analysis
Description: This project uses an instrumental variables design to test the causal impact of supervised release on failure to appear and recidivism.
Geographic Focus: New York City, New York
Grant Recipient: Research Foundation for the City of New York
Principal Investigator(s): Stephen Koppel, Emily Leslie, Michael Rempel, Rene Ropac
Term: 2025 – 2027
Amount: $502,300

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Name: Risk Tools in the Criminal Justice System: Evidence from New York City
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to evaluate the causal impact of a newly developed Release Assessment tool implemented in New York City’s pretrial system.
Geographic Focus: New York City, New York
Grant Recipient: University of Chicago
Principal Investigator(s): Jens Ludwig, Douglas Miller, Sendhil Mullainathan, Greg Stoddard
Term: 2025 – 2026
Amount: $296,900

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Name: Does Management Matter? Evidence from Indigent Defense in Texas
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to evaluate the causal impact of managed defense offices on the quality of public defense as measured by case outcomes.
Geographic Focus: Texas
Grant Recipient: Regents of the University of California at Irvine
Principal Investigator(s): Matthew Freedman, Emily Owens
Term: 2025 – 2026
Amount: $87,300

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Name: Understanding the Effects of Criminal Prosecution
Description: This project uses an instrumental variables design to examine the causal effect of misdemeanor prosecution on criminal justice and labor market outcomes.
Geographic Focus: Texas
Grant Recipient: University of California Los Angeles
Principal Investigator(s): TJ Hedin
Term: 2025 – 2028
Amount: $60,800

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Name: Ninth Circuit Charleston SC Case Screening RCT
Description: This project uses a randomized controlled trial to estimate the causal impact of a prosecutorial intervention that screens out low-risk cases with insufficient evidence on case outcomes and recidivism. 
Geographic Focus: Charleston, South Carolina
Grant Recipient: New Venture Fund
Principal Investigator(s): Donald Braman, Kevin Himberger, JJ Naddeo, Rory Pulvino
Term: 2025 – 2026
Amount: $76,400

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Name: Fines, Fees, and Economic Wellbeing
Description: This project uses a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the causal impact of a text message intervention providing information to individuals with court-ordered payments.
Geographic Focus: Arizona
Grant Recipient: Arizona State University
Principal Investigator(s): Susan Miller, Sian Mughan, Akheil Singla
Term: 2025 – 2027
Amount: $561,800

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Name: The Impact of Publicly Provided Defense Counsel on Defendant Case Outcomes
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to evaluate the causal impact of changes to public defender salaries on the effectiveness of public defense in North Carolina.
Geographic Focus: North Carolina
Grant Recipient: University of Maryland
Principal Investigator(s): Taylor Landon
Term: 2025
Amount: $44,000

Incarceration and Post-Incarceration

Name: Juvenile Incarceration, Long-Run Outcomes, and Family Spillovers
Description: This project uses an instrumental variables design to study the causal impact of juvenile incarceration on short and long-run criminal justice, education, and labor market outcomes.
Geographic Focus: South Carolina
Grant Recipient: University of California at Riverside
Principal Investigator(s): Ozkan Eren, Randi Hjalmarsson, Orgul Ozturk
Term: 2025 – 2027
Amount: $244,700

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Name: The Effects of Driving Under the Influence
Description: This project uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate the causal effects of DUI sanctions on driver outcomes in Ohio, Texas, and Washington.
Geographic Focus: Ohio, Texas, and Washington
Grant Recipient: University of Notre Dame du Lac
Principal Investigator(s): Jeffrey Denning, Benjamin Hansen, Lars Lefgren, Emily Leslie, Cody Tuttle
Term: 2025 – 2026
Amount: $330,200

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Name: Evaluating Lubbock County’s Behavioral Therapy Program to Reduce Violence Among Inmates
Description: This project uses a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the causal impact of a structured, intensive cognitive behavioral therapy program on behavioral outcomes in a Texas detention facility.
Geographic Focus: Lubbock County, Texas
Grant Recipient: University of Notre Dame du Lac
Principal Investigator(s): Mary Kate Batistich, Bill Evans, Tyler Giles, Jens Ludwig
Term: 2025 – 2026
Amount: $191,100

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Name: The Impact of Union Pre-Apprenticeships for People Returning from Prison
Description: This project uses a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the causal impact of the Pathways to Apprenticeship (P2A) program, a pre-apprenticeship initiative designed to connect formerly incarcerated individuals with union jobs in the construction industry.
Geographic Focus: New York City, New York
Grant Recipient: Columbia University
Principal Investigator(s): Adam Reich, Erin Jacobs Valentine, Sam Donahue
Term: 2025 – 2031
Amount: $953,000

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Name: Recreational Marijuana Laws, Inmate Composition, and Recidivism
Description: This project uses a difference-in-differences design to examine the causal impact of recreational marijuana laws on inmate composition and the subsequent likelihood of reoffending.
Geographic Focus: United States
Grant Recipient: Social Science Research Council
Principal Investigator(s): Anna Kyriazis
Term: 2025
Amount: $200,800

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Name: Rights Restoration Reentry Program in Ohio Prisons
Description: This project uses a randomized controlled trial to examine the causal impact of prerelease services that facilitate record sealing and the provision of employment qualification certificates on public safety and labor market outcomes.
Geographic Focus: Ohio
Grant Recipient: Ohio State University
Principal Investigator(s): Pete Leasure, Maria Orsini
Term: 2025 – 2028
Amount: $425,000

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Name: More than a ​‘McJob’: Criminal Records, Education, and Access to Middle-Skill Jobs
Description: This project uses a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the causal impact of post-secondary carceral education (PSCE) credentials on employer responses to job applications from candidates with criminal records.
Geographic Focus: Chicago, Illinois
Grant Recipient: Northeastern University
Principal Investigator(s): Abby Ballou, Megan Denver
Term: 2025
Amount: $45,400

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Name: Does Incarceration Reduce Crime or Redirect It?
Description: This project uses a regression discontinuity design to evaluate the causal effects of incarceration accounting for offending and other misconduct that occurs within correctional facilities.
Geographic Focus: North Carolina
Grant Recipient: University of Virginia
Principal Investigator(s): Emma Harrington, Aurelie Ouss, Hannah Shaffer, Megan Stevenson 
Term: 2025 – 2029
Amount: $608,700

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Name: The Economic Impacts of Criminal Convictions
Description: This project uses difference-in-differences and instrumental variables designs to understand how criminal convictions influence socio-economic outcomes.
Geographic Focus: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Grant Recipient: University of Pennsylvania
Principal Investigator(s): Winnie van Dijk, John Eric Humphries, Aurelie Ouss, Megan Stevenson
Term: 2025 – 2029
Amount: $656,200

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Name: Credit Access among Former Justice-Involved Entrepreneurs: RD Evidence from the Paycheck Protection Program
Description: This project uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate the causal impact of small business loans made available through the Paycheck Protection Program to those with a felony record on criminal justice and labor market outcomes.
Geographic Focus: United States
Grant Recipient: University of Missouri
Principal Investigator(s): Keith Finlay, Kylie Hwang, Michael Mueller-Smith, Brittany Street
Term: 2025 – 2026
Amount: $98,700