Violent Crimes, Classroom Quality, and Child Learning and Development: Investigating the Effects of Community Violence on Education Outcomes

Juan Camilo Cristancho

Despite growing recognition of the harmful effects of violence on youth, important gaps remain in our understanding of when, where, and how these effects manifest. This dissertation investigates how exposure to community violence affects young children's development and early learning environments. Paper 1 is a meta-analysis synthesizing the literature on the effects of objectively measured community violence exposure on children's cognitive, behavioral, and emotional outcomes. By coding over 2400 estimates across more than 22 studies, this analysis quantifies the overall impact and examines heterogeneity by exposure timing, outcome domain, and research design. Preliminary results reveal a left-skewed distribution of effects, consistent with expected negative outcomes, and suggest that many studies are underpowered. Additional analyses explore publication bias and identify conditions under which violence has stronger effects. The second study focuses on Colombia and examines how recent homicides near early childhood education providers influence both classroom quality and children's developmental outcomes. Using administrative data and detailed geocoded information, the study estimates the effects of violent events by timing, proximity, and baseline classroom resources. Results suggest that classroom quality, particularly pedagogical interactions, is sensitive to recent exposure, with effects that may be more persistent than those observed for child-level outcomes. Together, these studies shed light on specific mechanisms linking violence to developmental outcomes and provide policy-relevant benchmarks for early interventions that strengthen resilience and protect early learning environments from the harmful ripple effects of community violence.

About Juan Camilo Cristancho

Juan Camilo Cristancho is a Colombian Ph.D. candidate in Education (Educational Policy and Social Context) at the University of California, Irvine. Juan Camilo's research focuses on early childhood development and education in global contexts, particularly how exposure to community violence shapes children's cognitive and socioemotional outcomes. He also examines the development and evaluation of targeted education policies for early childhood and school-aged children. His work has been published in Child Development, the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, and other peer-reviewed journals. Prior to his doctoral studies, Juan Camilo worked as a researcher at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, and served as a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank and other institutions, designing and implementing evaluations for social policies. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in economics, as well as a master's degree in public policy, all from Universidad de los Andes.