Monica Bhatt
Senior Research Director
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Expertise
Connect
Expertise
Monica P. Bhatt is the Senior Research Director for the University of Chicago Crime Lab and Education Lab. In this role, Dr. Bhatt serves as the principal investigator on a number of applied research studies, including those focused on high-dosage tutoring; alleviating mental health for young women; and READI Chicago, an initiative to reduce gun violence involvement among those at highest risk. Her current work focuses on leading the Personalized Learning Initiative, a multi-site randomized controlled trial of over 16,000 students designed to understand how we can scale the benefits of high-dosage tutoring to reach more students in an equitable manner. Her work has been published in high impact journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the American Economic Review, and Science and has been cited in media outlets such as the New York Times, National Public Radio, and the Chicago Tribune.
Prior to coming to the Crime Lab and Education Lab, she worked as a researcher at the American Institutes for Research where she led projects related to college access and retention, teacher quality, school finance, and school accountability policy. She is a former Fulbright Scholar and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in Education Policy and an M.P.P. and B.A. in Public Policy from Vanderbilt University.
Predicting and Preventing Gun Violence: An Experimental Evaluation of READI Chicago – Final Paper
Learn more about the technical details of the READI study.
Service Provision Risk Assessment Research Brief
Learn about how our team assesses risk.
Scope Challenges To Social Impact
Thinking, Fast And Slow? Some Field Experiments To Reduce Crime And Dropout In Chicago
Supporting Enlace Chicago and New Life Centers with Data-Driven Proactive Outreach
Using a data-driven approach, the Crime Lab provides individual referrals to help outreach organizations Enlace Chicago and New Life Centers target their services to people who may be at the highest risk for gun violence involvement in the near future.
Youth Advocate Programs
The Crime Lab and Education Lab, in partnership with Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (YAP), conducted a randomized controlled trial of YAP’s wraparound advocacy services to evaluate the program’s impact on youth academic outcomes and violence engagement outcomes.
Service Provision Risk Assessment (SPRA)
The Crime Lab designed the Service Provision Risk Assessment to help violence prevention organizations identify the people at the highest risk of future gun violence involvement and offer them intensive social services and supports.
Rapid Employment and Development Initiative (READI) Chicago
READI Chicago is a gun violence reduction initiative that provides almost two years of intensive programming to men at the highest risk of shooting or being shot.
Latest Updates
How a gun violence spike in 2016 created a movement of Chicagoans that is still building
Dr. Monica Bhatt and Roseanna Ander discuss the spike in gun violence in 2016 that led many in the city to search for new solutions.
The inequality of safety: All big cities have a violence problem. Chicago’s is different.
The Crime Lab’s analysis reveals a stark contrast in homicide rates across different parts of Chicago, with significant increases in areas like Austin and Garfield Park, and a citywide arrest rate decline. Additionally, Senior Research Director Monica Bhatt highlights that participation in programs like READI Chicago led to significantly fewer arrests for shootings and homicides.
Ander & Bhatt: School Safety Is About More Than Keeping Guns Out of the Classroom
Founding Director Roseanna Ander and Senior Research Director Monica Bhatt argue that the success of the newly enacted Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which aims to address America’s gun violence crisis, largely depends on how its resources are used. They emphasize that safety measures should go beyond just hardening school buildings and that the focus should be on proven, data-driven programs that help young people deal with trauma, develop conflict resolution skills, and stay engaged in education. Highlighted in the piece are two programs, Choose to Change and Becoming A Man, which have shown significant positive results in reducing violent crime arrests and boosting high school graduation rates.
