GUNSChicago Economist Argues for Social Intervention on Gun Violence
In his new book, University of Chicago’s Jens Ludwig makes the case for a pragmatic approach. Instead of waiting for the U.S. to solve gun violence by addressing its social problems, incarcerating people, and reducing the number of guns in circulation, he argues for a short-term solution: social intervention in places most affected by interpersonal violence.
This story was originally published by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here.
Jens Ludwig lived in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood for almost two decades. As the University of Chicago behavioral economist researched crime on the South Side five years ago, two communities — Greater Grand Crossing and South Shore — caught his interest.
While both areas have similar social conditions, Greater Grand Crossing experiences twice as many shootings per capita as South Shore. Notably, however, the characteristics that have long been considered to be drivers of gun violence did not account for their differences. That left Ludwig wondering if there was another explanation, and ultimately led him to research and write his new book, “Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence,” which was released on April 21.
Two common ideas, Ludwig argues, perpetuate the popular narrative that explains why gun violence occurs, and how it must be solved. The “conventional wisdom of the right,” he said, maintains that “bad people” who aren’t afraid of the criminal legal system are to blame. To disincentivize their harmful actions, it follows that they must be threatened with harsh prison sentences. Those on the political left, he said, argue that economic desperation drives people to commit violence. To avoid it, then, there must be alternative ways to make a living that are more appealing, a thought that leads to solutions like job programs.
Ludwig contends that both of these ideas are flawed because they’re based on the assumption that people who engage in gun violence are deliberately making premeditated decisions, instead of automatically reacting to stressful situations. Most people don’t act in a rational way during an argument, he said, and when people have guns, the conflicts become deadly. This is especially true, Ludwig said, for people living under everyday stress and trauma, like regular exposure to violent crime. These additional factors deplete residents’ mental bandwidth, and can compromise their decision-making abilities.
In Unforgiving Places:The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence, Ludwig presents a behavioral approach to solving America’s gun crisis. Instead of waiting for the U.S. to solve gun violence by addressing its social problems, incarcerating people, and reducing the number of guns in circulation, he argues for a short-term solution: social intervention in places most affected by interpersonal violence.
