Behavioral Science
By learning more about human decision-making in stressful situations, behavioral science can help us identify better ways to deal with the harms created by gun violence and a broken criminal justice system — and can help prevent these harms before they occur.
Behavioral science, which seeks to better understand human decision-making, is helping public safety researchers learn more about why individuals are vulnerable to automatic behaviors during high-stress situations — for example, why an individual might pull a trigger when an argument spirals out of control. Behavioral science gives us a new framework through which to view the consequences of difficult situations. This understanding of “criminal behavior” as “human behavior” gives us new tools we can use to reduce violence and promote justice.
The Crime Lab is developing and evaluating programs that provide behavioral science-informed training and supports to individuals at-risk of violence involvement as well as former offenders, police officers, prosecutors, judges, and others involved in the criminal justice system.
Latest Updates
How cognitive behavioral intervention is reducing gun violence in Chicago
Learn how Dr. Chico Tillmon, Executive Director of the Crime Lab’s Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy, is building relationships with communities heavily affected by gun violence and providing services tailored to their needs.
Left in the dark: 25,000 streetlights are out in LA, putting safety at risk in some neighborhoods
KNBC Los Angeles covers research from the University of Chicago Crime Lab showing that street “lighting reduces outdoor nighttime crimes by approximately 36 percent.”
Does Nothing Stop a Bullet Like a Job?
Read Crime Lab Faculty Director Jens Ludwig’s latest op-ed arguing that violence tends to be a crime of passion, not economic desperation.
