Jens Ludwig
Pritzker Director
Connect
Expertise
Jens Ludwig is the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, Pritzker Director of the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab, and co-director of the Education Lab. He helped found the Crime Lab and Education Lab to work closely with the public sector to solve pressing social problems. These partnerships have led to important policy changes in cities around the country, including Chicago and New York, and have been featured in national news outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, PBS News Hour, and National Public Radio, and the scientific basis for these policies have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals like the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Science, and Nature. In 2012 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science.
Policy Brief: Understanding and Improving Early Intervention Systems
This policy brief is a summary of a research paper entitled “Predicting Police Misconduct” by Greg Stoddard, Dylan Fitzpatrick, and Jens Ludwig.
NBER Working Paper: Predicting Police Misconduct
This paper outlines the results of research on over a decade of Chicago Police Department data that shows it is possible to predict risk of on-duty and off-duty misconduct, allowing police departments to prioritize training and supportive resources.
Empirical Analysis of Prediction Mistakes in New York City Pretrial Data
2024 Video: Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy (CVILA) Inaugural Cohort
Watch our latest video about the inaugural cohort of the CVILA.
Clearance Rates
The Crime Lab partnered with the Chicago Police Department to analyze historical trends in clearance rates for homicides and non-fatal shootings and evaluate the innovative Area Technology Center (ATC) model.
New York City Release Assessment
The Crime Lab partnered with New York City leaders to update its pretrial release assessment to be more accurate and equitable with the aim of helping judges reduce pretrial incarceration by identifying the vast majority of low-risk defendants who can be released without bail or other pretrial conditions.
Strategic Decision Support Centers (SDSCs)
The Crime Lab and the City of Chicago joined forces to implement data-driven management strategies that address gun violence in some of the city’s most heavily affected communities.
Officer Support System (OSS)
The Crime Lab partnered with the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to develop the Officer Support System (OSS), a next-generation, data-driven early intervention system to promote officers’ long-term mental health and wellness.
Latest Updates
Can We Predict Police Misconduct?
In a recent Economics applied podcast, Crime Lab Faculty Director Jens Ludwig shares about his recent work on “Predicting Police Misconduct.” Jens dives into whether we can predict which police officers are most at risk of serious misconduct.
Machine-gun conversion device dubbed ‘Glock switches’ taking violence to the ‘next level’: Experts
Jens Ludwig, Pritzker Director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, speaks with ABC News on a disturbing new public safety trend: teenagers armed with weapons converted into machine guns with cheap “Glock switches.”
“From a public safety perspective, from a public health perspective, this is a problem that, unfortunately, is disproportionately concentrated in the country’s most economically vulnerable communities of color.” – Jens Ludwig
Expert: “Behavioral economics can stop the shootings”
Learn how the University of Chicago Crime Lab is using behavioral economics to reduce gun violence.
“Our studies clearly show that if we give young people support to take more time to make decisions in risky situations, both acts of violence, crime and school dropouts decrease.” – Jens Ludwig, Pritzker Director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab
