Jens Ludwig — Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence

What if everything we understood about gun violence was wrong? In 2007, economist Jens Ludwig moved to the South Side of Chicago to research two big questions: Why does gun violence happen, and is there anything we can do about it? Almost two decades later, the answers aren’t what he expected. Unforgiving Places is Ludwig’s revelatory portrait of gun violence in America’s most famously maligned city. Jens Ludwig is the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, Pritzker Director of the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab, codirector of the Education Lab, and codirector of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s working group on the economics of crime. His current work focuses on how behavioral science and data science can help solve social problems. He helped found the Crime Lab and the Education Lab to work closely with government agencies to turn these insights into social change out in the real world. Examples of real-world impact include studies of promising social and educational programs that have led to millions of dollars of public sector resources being re-allocated to more effective, evidence-based strategies, working with the Chicago Police Department to implement data-driven management changes that helped substantially reduce gun violence without increasing arrests, and partnership with the Mayor’s Office in New York City to help build and implement a new pretrial risk tool as part of the city’s goal to close Riker’s Island.