What if everything we know about gun violence is wrong? 

Renowned behavioral economist Jens Ludwig will draw on decades of research and immersive fieldwork to present that case in a talk set for Wednesday, April 22, at UC Riverside. 

Ludwig, who is the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, will speak as part of the Provost’s Lecture Series, which was established this year to bring prominent scholars to campus for meaningful engagement with faculty and students.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Ludwig to UC Riverside,” said Elizabeth Watkins, UCR provost and executive vice chancellor. “His rigorous, data-driven approach to studying gun violence offers fresh insight into one of America’s most complex challenges. Hosting national leaders like Dr. Ludwig creates a vital forum for our faculty and students to engage, network, and collaborate on a national stage.”

In 2007, Ludwig 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? The answers, documented in his 2025 book, “Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence,” weren’t what he expected. Rather than characterizing shootings as the calculated acts of malicious or desperate people, Ludwig demonstrates in his book how most shootings grow out of a more fleeting source: interpersonal conflict. By examining why some arguments turn tragic while others don’t, he shows gun violence to be more circumstantial—and more solvable—than our traditional approaches lead us to believe.

An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, Ludwig is the Pritzker Director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, which he helped found in 2008 to serve as a research partner to the public sector. As a scholar whose work has shaped public policy in major cities like Chicago and New York, Ludwig also co-directs the National Bureau of Economic Research’s working group on the economics of crime. “Unforgiving Places,” published by the University of Chicago Press, was named one of the New Yorker’s Best Books of 2025.

Ludwig’s presentation, which is also part of the School of Public Policy’s 10-year anniversary celebration, will begin at 4 p.m. in the School of Medicine Education Building II, Room 205. Watkins and Mark Long, dean of the School of Public Policy, will deliver opening remarks. For more information and to RSVP, please visit the UCR Events Calendar.