The first delinquency prevention experiment: a socio-historical review of the origins of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study’s research design

Richard Cabot, pair-matched random allocation, and the attempt to compare like with like in the social sciences and medicine. Part 2: the context of medicine and public health

“…37 Prior research pointed to the study's design as representing a natural carry-over from Cabot's background in clinical and research medicine, as well as the design appealing to him on the grounds that it would be even more rigorous than alternation or simple random allocation. 38 We found additional support for the influence of the latter, with Cabot viewing matching as insufficient on its own to achieve equivalence between treatment and control groups. Equally compelling was Cabot's added concern about 'achieving adequate experimental controls' in evaluating an intervention that focused on social behaviour.…”

Richard Cabot, pair-matched random allocation, and the attempt to compare like with like in the social sciences and medicine. Part 1: the context of the social sciences

“…1 Recent historical research on the origins of the research design of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study has suggested two plausible explanations for Cabot's decision to employ matching with random allocation. 5 First, it represented a natural carry-over from Cabot's background in clinical practice and research. This had long been the prevailing view about the research design in general, held by those conducting research on and writing about the study.…”

“…Today, the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study is recognised as the first randomised trial in criminology, 3 one of the earliest randomised clinical trials of a social intervention, 4 and seemingly the first in the social and behavioural sciences to use alternate or random allocation after matching study participants into pairs. 5 Historical research has previously investigated the personal, professional and institutional influences that inspired Cabot's vision for the study and its research design. [5][6][7][8] Yet Cabot -both a physician and a social interventionist -lived at the interface of medicine and the social sciences.…”

“…5 Historical research has previously investigated the personal, professional and institutional influences that inspired Cabot's vision for the study and its research design. [5][6][7][8] Yet Cabot -both a physician and a social interventionist -lived at the interface of medicine and the social sciences. His study marks a telling moment in the history of attempts to compare like with like -of the evolving articulation among pre-allocation stratification, matching, alternate allocation, random allocation and other innovations intended to ensure fair comparisons of the effects of interventions.…”

Association of a Crime Prevention Program for Boys With Mortality 72 Years After the Intervention

“…The first randomized clinical trial to investigate effects of a preventive intervention on children’s criminal behavior, the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study (CSYS), was initiated in the 1930s 12,13,14 by Richard Clarke Cabot, MD, a physician and professor of clinical medicine and social ethics at Harvard University. 15,16 The preventive intervention holds some similarities to mentoring programs today.…”