Jan 2017
Gun Violence in Chicago, 2016
The Crime Lab studied the spike in murders in 2016.
A total of 764 people were murdered in Chicago in 2016. They were sons, brothers, and fathers; sisters, daughters, and mothers; they were, as the title of The New York Times reporter Fox Butterfield’s book on urban violence noted, All God’s Children. This report represents a first step towards understanding what happened with the goal of helping the city of Chicago prevent another year like the one that just passed.
We draw on data obtained from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and other sources to provide a more complete picture of the change in our city’s crime problem in 2016. Our analysis highlights a number of key facts that are important for understanding what happened, but also raises some new puzzles as well. While this report focuses on establishing basic facts and avoids delving too deeply into solutions, we will continue to partner with policymakers, the civic community, and local nonprofits to identify promising approaches for moving forward. We plan to share our thinking about how to reduce violence in Chicago, informed by the best available data and research, in other venues in the future.
Choose to Change® (C2C®) Program Guide
This program guide is intended for community-based organizations working to fill gaps in services and reach an underserved population of youth impacted by violence and trauma.
Building safer communities: Behavioral science innovations in youth violence prevention
This policy brief highlights results from a large-scale randomized controlled trial that evaluated the impact of Choose to Change® (C2C®) on participants’ criminal justice involvement.
Unpacking the Impacts of a Youth Behavioral Health Intervention: Experimental Evidence from Chicago
This working paper details results from a study of Choose to Change® (C2C®), a trauma-informed cognitive behavioral therapy and intensive mentoring program developed by nonprofits Brightpoint and Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (YAP).
Improving Programming in Juvenile Detention: The Impact of Project Safe Neighborhoods Youth Outreach Forums
This paper presents the results of a randomized controlled trial of a youth outreach forums program run in the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center (JTDC) by the Northern Illinois Project Safe Neighborhoods Task Force.
Latest Updates
How a study in the Stockholm subway could help prevent violent crime
We need to learn the lessons from an ingenious piece of research done in Sweden and radically change policies around interpersonal violence, says UChicago Crime Lab director Jens Ludwig.
‘Definitely a cause for hope’ UChicago economist says of new book on causes of gun violence
America has a fundamental misunderstanding of what drives gun violence, and it’s prevented us from solving the problem. That’s according to the new book “Unforgiving Places”, by University of Chicago economist and Crime Lab director Jens Ludwig.
Understanding Gun Violence in America
Steve Davies and Jens Ludwig discuss why America has so many gun deaths, how traditional narratives fail to explain most gun violence, and why past policies failed to reduce the deadly toll. Ludwig speaks about his new book, grounded in evidence and behavioral insights to further explain gun violence.
