Gun Violence in America: A Complex Crisis

Jens Ludwig has an idea for how to fix America’s gun violence problem — and it starts by rejecting conventional wisdom from both sides of the political aisle. 

• SOURCES:
  • Jens Ludwig, professor of economics at the University of Chicago and director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab.

• RESOURCES:
  • Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence, by Jens Ludwig (2025).
  • "Scope Challenges to Social Impact," by Monica Bhatt, Jonathan Guryan, Jens Ludwig, and Anuj Shah (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2021).
  • "Citywide cluster randomized trial to restore blighted vacant land and its effects on violence, crime, and fear," by Charles Branas, Eugenia South, Michelle Kondo, Bernadette Hohl, Philippe Bourgois, Douglas Wiebe, and John MacDonald (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018).
  • "Thinking, Fast and Slow? Some Field Experiments to Reduce Crime and Dropout in Chicago," by Sara Heller, Anuj Shah, Jonathan Guryan, Jens Ludwig, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Harold Pollack (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2016).
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman (2013).
  • "Homicide and Suicide Rates Associated With Implementation of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act," by Jens Ludwig and Philip Cook (Journal of the American Medical Association, 2000).
  • The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs (1992).
  • The University of Chicago Crime Lab.
  • "Becoming a Man" (University of Chicago Crime Lab).

• EXTRAS:
  • "Do the Police Have a Management Problem?" by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
  • "From prison to Ph.D, this activist fights for peace in Chicago," by Kenya Downs (PBS News, 2016).