Picture yourself in a town you've never visited before and don't really know much about beyond the tourist stuff. You make a wrong turn and all of a sudden, you know you're in the wrong part of town. Many of us have known instinctively that we're in a place we don't want to be, even if no one is about. That feeling is important.
And the parts that give you that feeling might be the secret to changing it.
At least, that's part of the idea being pushed by a professor from the University of Chicago:
On April 13, Jens Ludwig, a distinguished service professor and director of the Crime Lab at the University of Chicago, delivered a talk on how gun violence can be prevented through methods such as behavioral training and improving public spaces.
Although widespread legislation restricting gun ownership is a commonly proposed method of combating gun violence, Ludwig argued that this approach is “uncertain” and said that “in light of that uncertainty, I would say let's diversify our risks and push on (another) margin.” Instead, an effective way to prevent gun violence is to prevent the escalation of violent behavior, he said.
“We’ve been framing the problem incorrectly,” Ludwig said at the Monday talk hosted by the Watson School of International and Public Affairs.
His research is based on the psychology of human thinking, he said, which he broke down into intuitive and rational thought. According to Ludwig, humans are generally only aware of 5% of what happens in the brain. The other 95% is intuitive, and this is what he focuses on in his research on gun violence.
Ludwig’s 2025 book, “Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence,” discusses methods of intervention to prevent conflicts from escalating to violence.
At the Crime Lab, Ludwig has worked to incorporate “Becoming A Man,” a violence prevention program rooted in behavioral science, into Chicago public schools. The program seeks to de-escalate verbal arguments that could turn into gun violence through education for students to learn how to work through their responses to conflict.
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Ludwig also spoke about the benefits of improving public spaces, citing a Penn study that found that replacing empty lots with “pocket parks” could reduce shootings in low-income neighborhoods by nearly 30%. He added that other improvements, such as increasing street lighting and commercial establishments, can also improve public safety.
First, I respect Ludwig admitting that gun control isn't a sure-fire fix. That's what we normally hear from academics, and while it's not any kind of fix, I'm not sure Ludwig can get away with admitting that in public. Even if it weren't a matter of our civil liberties, though, we've got mountains of data showing that it simply doesn't work, and even if the data to the contrary isn't from cooked studies, what we have is a conflict, hence Ludwig calling it "uncertain."
But what about the "Becoming a Man" thing and the whole "behavioral training" thing? Is that legit?
Back in 1984, a psychologist named Stanton Samenow wrote "Inside the Criminal Mind." In it, he argues that most of criminality doesn't stem from economics so much as what he calls "errors of thinking." Basically, there's a criminal personality that views the world in a particular way, and that shows up regardless of economic status.
This was the result of many interviews with criminals, and the book has been highly influential.
A program like Becoming a Man could take someone who has these errors of thinking at a young age and instill a better mindset before they hurt others.
Couple that with cleaning up these bad neighborhoods and making them more inviting, and you end up with something different. Research shows that when the neighborhood is more inviting, residents are more likely to spend time outdoors, which means there are witnesses there to dissuade criminal activity.
These two approaches would do a lot to further reduce violent crime, and they don't infringe on our civil liberties. They don't treat law-abiding gun owners like we're the problem. They recognize who is and try to address it before it becomes an issue.
That alone makes it worth a solid try in my book.
