Policy and Program Evaluation

We work with government agencies and community-based partners to rigorously evaluate gun violence intervention programs and criminal justice policy reforms.

 Across every project or partner, we work to generate high-quality research about the factors driving public safety trends and identify evidence-based interventions to save lives. Access to good and unbiased data is the common denominator for strong evaluation, which is why we pursue data-sharing agreements with public agencies and seek to make our own data publicly available whenever possible. We focus on policies and programs that are supporting the communities and individuals most impacted by gun violence and criminal justice system harms. 

From leading randomized controlled trials — the gold standard in research — to evaluating historical and real-time data, the Crime Lab uses a variety of methods to rigorously evaluate policies and interventions.  

Latest Updates

We’ve Been Thinking About Gun Violence All Wrong
Op-Ed
TIME
May 2025

We’ve Been Thinking About Gun Violence All Wrong

Jens Ludwig, Crime Lab Pritzker Director and author of “Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence,” pens an op-ed for TIME Magazine arguing that the root cause of gun violence is not what we think it is — rather than a deliberate, rational act, most shootings start with arguments that escalate and end in tragedy because someone has a gun.

The Indicator from Planet Money: What we misunderstand about gun violence
Podcast
NPR
May 2025

The Indicator from Planet Money: What we misunderstand about gun violence

Crime Lab Pritzker Director Jens Ludwig joins NPR’s The Indicator from Planet Money podcast to discuss why he believes many of us fundamentally misunderstand the problem of gun violence and how behavioral economics reveals some potential solutions.

Rethinking Gun Violence
Q&A
Vital City
May 2025

Rethinking Gun Violence

Vital City sat down with Crime Lab Pritzker Director Jens Ludwig to discuss his new book, Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence,” which shows how changing individual behavior is possible — and that these changes can result in declines in gun violence.