Are We Thinking About Gun Violence All Wrong?

In Professor Jens Ludwig's new book Unforgiving Places, he contrasts two Chicago neighborhoods (Greater Grand Crossing and South Shore) that, despite nearly identical demographic features in almost every account, see dramatic differences in shootings per capita. The Atlantic podcast "Good on Paper" sits down with Ludwig to discuss his research. Describing his work, Ludwig says,

The book basically makes two arguments. One argument is that we’re despairing about the problem of gun violence because we’ve thought about it as just all being about gun control, and I think that’s not true. I think the problem of gun violence in America is partly about guns, and it’s partly about violent behavior. And if we can’t do anything about the guns, we can at least try and do something about the violent behavior. And the experiences of L.A. and New York over the last 30 years show us that there’s real progress that you can make there.

Continuing, he says,

And then I think the other core argument of the book is that violent behavior is not what we’ve thought. I think most people have thought of violent behavior in America as being about thoughtful, deliberate action that leads you to focus on incentives, like bigger sticks or more enticing carrots. And in fact, I think most shootings in America are instead fast-thinking, reactive—it stems from arguments. And that leads us away from relying exclusively on incentives and towards a very different type of policy that we just haven’t been talking about or thinking about.

Listen to episode here