Understanding (and solving) gun violence in America: Lessons from behavioral science

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

What if everything we new about gun violence was wrong? The conventional wisdom on the right is that gun violence is due to characterologically bad people who are not afraid of what the criminal justice system will do to them; that implies the only solution is to disincentive gun violence with the threat of ever-harsher prison penalties. On the left, the view has been that gun violence is due to economically desperate people doing whatever it takes to survive; that implies the only solution is to disincentivize gun violence by improving the alternatives to crime, by ending poverty. Following these conventional wisdoms for the past 100 years has been a road to nowhere; the murder rate in America today is almost exactly the same as it was back in 1900. This plenary session, built around the new book by Jens Ludwig, Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence, will argue that conventional wisdom has not been more helpful because it has misunderstood what gun violence in America actually is. Behavioral science provides a better way to understand the problem; with this improved understanding we can see that the problem turns out to be far more preventable than everyone has long believed.

The plenary would involve a short overview of the book’s argument by Jens Ludwig (a behavioral economist at the University of Chicago), followed by a panel discussion moderated by Kim Smith (also at the University of Chicago, she works closely with both government agencies and non-profits day-to-day to address the gun violence problem in America) involving Elizabeth Glazer (editor of Vital City, formerly director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice in New York City and policy advisor on public safety to the Governor of New York State) and John MacDonald (Professor of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania). The session would thus represent a variety of academic disciplinary perspectives and academic versus practitioner / policymaker views. 

Policy Area

• Crime, Justice, and Drugs

Moderator

• Kimberley Smith, The University of Chicago

Organizer

• Jens Ludwig, The University of Chicago

Speaker

• Elizabeth Glazer, Vital City