Causal Research on the Criminal Justice System (RSF/Arnold Ventures)

About this program

Russell Sage Foundation, in partnership with the Criminal Justice program at Arnold Ventures, is running its second annual grants competition to support early-career scholars conducting causal research on the criminal justice system. Eligible proposals should address policies or practices across police, courts, jails, prisons, probation/parole, or immigration detention and aim to estimate treatment effects of a policy, practice, or intervention. Applications must center on credible causal research designs—such as difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, instrumental variables, or randomized controlled trials—while mixed-methods projects are acceptable if the causal design is primary. Applicants must be early-career researchers and demonstrate a clear, methodologically rigorous plan to identify causal effects.