Sep 2023
Economic Club of Chicago – Chicago’s Safety Snapshot: Issues and Opportunities
These slides were presented by the Crime Lab at a forum hosted by the Economic Club and Commercial Club of Chicago.
Webinar: Overview of the City of Chicago’s Violence Reduction Dashboard
The Crime Lab hosted a webinar that explored the City of Chicago’s Violence Reduction Dashboard—a publicly available tool launched to support efforts to reduce gun violence through transparent, real-time data.
Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence
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.
2025 End-of-Year Analysis: Chicago Crime Trends
Violent crime declined substantially in 2025 across the country, including in our home city of Chicago – which experienced 168 fewer homicides through mid-December 2025 compared to the same period last year.
Local Gun Violence Dashboards
Chicago’s Violence Reduction Dashboard, launched by the Crime Lab in 2021, is featured in a toolkit created by Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund as a part of its Gun Violence Data Fellowship.
Latest Updates
Chicago’s Homicides Are Headed for Lowest Tally in 60 Years
Kim Smith, the Crime Lab’s Director of National Programs, speaks with Bloomberg’s Miranda Davis about the 2025 declines in violent crime in Chicago.
Chicago looks to close out 2025 with a 10-year low in violent crime
The Crime Lab’s experts and end-of-year analysis of Chicago crime trends are heavily featured in the latest Crain’s Forum on violence reduction.
The Best Books of 2025
The New Yorker includes Crime Lab Pritzker Director Jens Ludwig’s book, “Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence,” on its annual list of best books of the year.
