Reducing Gun Violence, Advancing Justice
The Crime Lab designs, tests, and scales data-driven innovations to improve the public sector’s response to the dual challenges of America’s gun violence crisis and a criminal justice system that is not truly just.
Unforgiving Places- Coming April 2025
Crime Lab Pritzker Director Jens Ludwig authored a book that argues the lack of progress in reducing gun violence ultimately stems from our having misunderstood the nature of the problem, and that behavioral science gives us a new way to understand – and solve – gun violence in America.
Policing Leadership Academy
The Policing Leadership Academy is designed to increase safety and fairness in America’s most violent neighborhoods.
CVI Leadership Academy
The Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy is designed to deepen the leadership and management practices of senior CVI leaders so they can effectively manage community-based organizations and implement CVI strategies at scale.
Choose to Change®
The Choose to Change® program combines trauma-informed therapy with wraparound supports and aims to reduce youth violence while improving educational outcomes outside of an institutional setting.
Given its scale, when it comes to gun violence and the criminal justice system, the government can cause the most harm from its failure – or have the greatest positive impact.
That’s why working with public sector agencies to improve their response is central to the Crime Lab’s work: It’s the best way to make progress at scale.
Griffin Catalyst highlights the Policing Leadership Academy, a new national leadership program that brings together rising police leaders from around the country for five months of advanced, intensive training in management best practices, leveraging data and technology and building community trust—all with the ultimate goal of creating safer, more vibrant communities.
Topics
Our goal is to have an outsized impact on our streets, in our courts, and across our justice system to support neighborhoods disproportionately suffering from these crises. That’s why the Crime Lab measures success in terms of real-world results.
Community Violence Intervention
Through a combination of street outreach by credible messengers and behavioral science-informed interventions, community violence intervention (CVI) programs help de-escalate stressful situations before they lead to violence.
Criminal Justice Reform
We're advancing long overdue reforms to reduce the harms of America's broken criminal justice system.
Gun Violence
In cities across America, communities face high rates of gun violence and significant harm caused by the criminal justice system – both of which disproportionately impact communities of color.
Policing
If we want to address America’s gun violence epidemic and save lives today, fair and effective policing is essential. But for too many communities, we are failing to deliver that kind of policing.
Youth Violence
Gun violence is the leading cause of death for young people in America. But youth violence interventions can help keep kids safe and reach those who are the hardest to reach.
Latest News & Events
In Chicago, cognitive behavioral therapy shows promise curbing youth violence
NPR’s Meg Anderson reported on Chicago’s Choose to Change (C2C), a program that combines trauma-informed therapy with wraparound supports and aims to reduce youth violence. The Crime Lab found that the program can effectively and sustainably reduce violence involvement and the likelihood of being arrested.
Unforgiving Places: The Behavioral Science of Ending Gun Violence
In this talk hosted by Chicago Booth’s Think Better Speaker Series, Jens Ludwig argued that the lack of progress in reducing gun violence ultimately stems from our having misunderstood the nature of the problem, and that behavioral science gives us a new way to understand – and solve – gun violence in America.
Are We Thinking About Gun Violence All Wrong?
Crime Lab Pritzker Director Jens Ludwig sat down with Jerusalem Demsas for The Atlantic’s Good on Paper podcast to preview his upcoming book, “Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence,” and discuss the behavioral science-informed solutions that could reduce gun violence in American cities.
