Jens Ludwig
Pritzker Director
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Expertise
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, and co-director of the Education Lab. He helped found the Crime Lab and Education Lab to work closely with the public sector to solve pressing social problems. These partnerships have led to important policy changes in cities around the country, including Chicago and New York, and have been featured in national news outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, PBS News Hour, and National Public Radio, and the scientific basis for these policies have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals like the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Science, and Nature. In 2012 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science.
Empirical Analysis of Prediction Mistakes in New York City Pretrial Data
2024 Video: Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy (CVILA) Inaugural Cohort
Watch our latest video about the inaugural cohort of the CVILA.
Brookings Institution Commentary: Making the invisible epidemic visible
Using new data from a large urban trauma center in Chicago, we document substantial under-reporting of domestic violence at the time of receiving medical care.
Technical Appendix: Is electronic monitoring contributing to gun violence?
This supplementary technical appendix complements the op-ed titled “Is electronic monitoring contributing to gun violence?”, written by Jens Ludwig and Ashna Arora. Due to limitations in space in the article, numerous details and sensitivity analyses were excluded from the published version. These additional details are provided here for a more comprehensive understanding of the topic.
Clearance Rates
The Crime Lab partnered with the Chicago Police Department to analyze historical trends in clearance rates for homicides and non-fatal shootings and evaluate the innovative Area Technology Center (ATC) model.
New York City Release Assessment
The Crime Lab partnered with New York City leaders to update its pretrial release assessment to be more accurate and equitable with the aim of helping judges reduce pretrial incarceration by identifying the vast majority of low-risk defendants who can be released without bail or other pretrial conditions.
Strategic Decision Support Centers (SDSCs)
The Crime Lab and the City of Chicago joined forces to implement data-driven management strategies that address gun violence in some of the city’s most heavily affected communities.
Becoming a Man
Youth Guidance’s Becoming a Man (BAM) uses insights from behavioral science to help youth navigate high-stakes situations.
Latest Updates
Incrementalism Beats YOLO
For Vital City’s “Does Evidence Matter?” issue, Crime Lab affiliate Philip Cook and Pritzker director Jens Ludwig provide commentary highlighting evidence that incremental social policies have a positive impact on society.
Jens Ludwig and Jacob Miller: We are seeing a lethal shift in America’s gun violence crisis
The Crime Lab’s Pritzker director Jens Ludwig and analyst Jacob Miller provide commentary on the increase in the lethality of shootings despite the decrease in overall gun violence last year.
Jens Ludwig – Can Behavioral Science Reduce Crime?
In this seminar, Faculty Director Jens Ludwig presented his SNS report titled “Using Behavioral Science to Reduce Crime and School Dropout” and participated in a panel discussion as part of the Institute for International Economic Studies/SNS International Policy talks.
