Harold Pollack

Co-Founder

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Headshot of ‘Crime Lab’ staff person

Harold Pollack is the Helen Ross Professor at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. He is also an Affiliate Professor in the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division and the Department of Public Health Sciences.

Co-founder of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, he is co-director of the University of Chicago Health Lab. He is a committee member of the Center for Health Administration Studies (CHAS) at the University of Chicago. His current NIH-funded research concerns improved services for individuals at the boundaries of the behavioral health and criminal justice systems, disabilities, and two major new efforts to address the opioid epidemic in Illinois and across the nation.

Past President of the Health Politics and Policy section of the American Political Science Association, Professor Pollack has been appointed to three committees of the National Academy of Sciences. He received his undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University. He holds master’s and doctorate degrees in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Before coming to Crown Family School, Professor Pollack was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in Health Policy Research at Yale University and taught Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Harold’s Resources
Expanding Access to Addiction Treatment
Academic Paper

Expanding Access to Addiction Treatment

Dec 2024

This paper explores practical strategies to expand access to addiction treatment for persons living with opioid use disorders (OUDs).

Agent-Based Model of Combined Community- and Jail-Based Take-Home Naloxone Distribution
Academic Paper

Agent-Based Model of Combined Community- and Jail-Based Take-Home Naloxone Distribution

Dec 2024

This paper outlines the impact and cost-effectiveness of naloxone distribution, particularly for people facing criminal justice involvement.

Results of the Chicago Inmate Survey of Gun Access and Use
Report

Results of the Chicago Inmate Survey of Gun Access and Use

Sep 2019
Key Findings: The Chicago Inmate Survey of Gun Access and Use (CIS)
Report

Key Findings: The Chicago Inmate Survey of Gun Access and Use (CIS)

Nov 2019
Harold’s Projects
Understanding Underground Gun Markets

Understanding Underground Gun Markets

The Crime Lab explored how people access firearms and ammunition in the illicit market.

Becoming a Man

Becoming a Man

Youth Guidance’s Becoming a Man (BAM) uses insights from behavioral science to help youth navigate high-stakes situations.

Latest Updates

Harold Pollack and Kristin Lee Berg: Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Americans Who Live with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Op-Ed
The Milbank Quarterly
Mar 2024

Harold Pollack and Kristin Lee Berg: Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Americans Who Live with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

This journal article covers the importance of meeting the mental health needs of people living with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Harold Pollack: Putting More Humility in Harm Reduction
Op-Ed
Vital City
Dec 2023

Harold Pollack: Putting More Humility in Harm Reduction

Crime Lab co-founder Harold Pollack makes the case for harm reduction as one way to address drug-use epidemics in this Vital City op-ed.