Shifting Boundaries — New York City's Randomised Building-Level Intervention Against Sexual Harassment and Dating Violence in Middle Schools

Shifting Boundaries is a middle-school prevention programme with two components. The classroom component has six sessions on the laws and consequences of dating violence and sexual harassment, establishing boundaries and safe relationships. The building component uses school-based restraining orders, greater staff and security presence in unsafe hot spots mapped by students, and posters raising awareness and reporting.
In a first New York City trial, schools were randomly assigned to classroom only, building only, both, or a no-intervention control; 30 schools completed the study. Results were mixed, but reductions in sexual violence perpetration by peers occurred in the building-only condition, which matters because it can be implemented with few extra costs to schools.
A second NIJ-funded trial randomised 23 middle schools (1,764 students) to deliver the programme to 6th grade only, 6th and 7th grades, or all three grades. Delivering to one grade level did as well as broader delivery for preventing peer violence and relationship abuse, while schools delivering to both 6th and 7th graders reduced sexual harassment victimisation six months after treatment compared with 6th grade only.
Caveats: results varied by outcome and condition, the classroom curriculum alone was not consistently effective, follow-up was short, and the evidence comes from one city's schools.

Read the full analysis: https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/effects-different-saturation-levels-shifting-boundaries