Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence
Date and Time:
May 14 2025 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Location:
Evanston Township High School Auditorium
Address:
1600 Dodge Ave., Evanston, IL 60201

Note: Event start time is Central Time (CT).

NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED

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Jens Ludwig, Ph.D.

Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy

Christian Mitchell

Vice President for Civic Engagement for the University of Chicago

Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence

Behavior | Civics | Communication | Community | Crisis Management | Economics | Gun Violence | Innovation | Public Health | Public Policy

In 2007, economist Jens Ludwig, Ph.D., moved to the South Side of Chicago to research two big questions: Why does gun violence happen, and is there anything we can do about it? Almost two decades later, the answers aren’t what he expected. Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence is Ludwig’s revelatory portrait of gun violence in America’s most famously maligned city.

Disproving the popular narrative that shootings are the calculated acts of malicious or desperate people, Ludwig shows how most shootings grow out of a more fleeting source: interpersonal conflict, especially arguments. By examining why some arguments turn tragic while others don’t, Ludwig shows gun violence to be more circumstantial—and more solvable—than our traditional approaches lead us to believe.

Drawing on decades of research and Ludwig’s immersive fieldwork in Chicago, Unforgiving Places is a breakthrough work at the cutting edge of behavioral economics. As Ludwig shows, progress on gun violence doesn’t require America to solve every other social problem first; it only requires that we find ways to intervene in the places and the ten-minute windows where human behaviors predictably go haywire.

Ludwig is the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. He is the Pritzker Director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, codirector of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s working group on the economics of crime, elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, and a member of the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academies of Science. His work has been featured in leading peer-reviewed scientific publications as well as national media like the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, NPR, and PBS NewsHour, among other outlets.

Ludwig will be in conversation with Christian Mitchell, Vice President for Civic Engagement for the University of Chicago, overseeing the Office of Civic Engagement, including state and local government relations, as well as the Office of Business Diversity and Commercial Real Estate Operations.

This event is suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded but not live streamed and will be available on FAN’s website and YouTube channel.

NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED