We think of them in separate categories, but police officers and soldiers share something essential with cartel members: 'They are all specialists in violence,' the sociologist @rgzepeda writes. In this incisive Essay, Gil explores what drives young men to pursue a career in violence

Organised violence is a trade, whether legal or illegal | Aeon Essays

Every society depends on violence workers, but what makes young men take a job that risks their lives and harms others?

aeon.co

Today @aeon.co published me an essay I wrote with the main insight of my research: The violence specialists. They are workers workers in a trade, regardless of it’s legality. They can be gangsters or soldiers. And there are aspects that makes this occupation attractive. aeon.co/essays/organ...

Sharing some good news 🎉 This month Im starting a 3yr Research Fellowship at @jhucarey.bsky.social's Tech & Society Initiative. Ill be based in downtown DC so if youre ever in the city, say hello! Oh and my wife @mkang.bsky.social is also here–– new AP at the JHU's new School of Govt & Policy! 🤩

A strategy targeting those driving gun violence in Baltimore's hardest-hit district cut shootings and homicides by a third in 18 months, with no rise in overall arrests, from Kapustin, Chalfin, Biddle, Wade, Khade, Layana, Struhl, and Braga www.nber.org/papers/w35292

Finished my PhD & feeling infinitely grateful. @bstewart.bsky.social told me in my 1st year that the PhD is "a lesson in self-mastery." That it was. What a privilege to have 6 years to discipline my thinking while researching violence in America alongside some of the most brilliant & generous ppl.

Commentary: Chicago recorded its fewest violent crimes in 60 years last year. That’s the good news. The bad news is what’s happening so far this year. While other cities continue reducing crime, in Chicago, homicides are actually up 7%. And summer is here, a time when violence spikes.

Megan Kang: What 99 men from Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods teach us about crime

chicagotribune.com

Being a victim of violence rewires how you see and engage with the world. I wrote a piece in the @chicagotribune.com on how that cycle forms and how cognitive behavioral interventions help break it. Read here: shorturl.at/M4uPo

Rio’s Rocinha community challenges the assumption that places lacking strong state presence are ungoverned. Informal social control through community networks, norms, and non-state authorities helps organize daily life for tens of thousands of residents.

Important & urgent: "concerns about reproducibility should not trump concerns about confidentiality or harm...particularly when efforts to ensure reproducibility have the potential to place inequitable burdens on qualitative researchers and to further erode...willingness to participate in research"

𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐@mkang.bsky.social · 2mo ago

@jessicacalarco.com hit the nail on the head in her @pnas.org editorial about why the trend towards data transparency can be complicated for qualitative research--a dilemma that came to head in our recent PNAS paper on violence. I recommend giving it a read. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

@jessicacalarco.com hit the nail on the head in her @pnas.org editorial about why the trend towards data transparency can be complicated for qualitative research--a dilemma that came to head in our recent PNAS paper on violence. I recommend giving it a read. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

With qualitative research, the risks of data sharing can outweigh the rewards | PNAS

With qualitative research, the risks of data sharing can outweigh the rewards

pnas.org

1/3 Excited to share a paper 5 years in the making, now out in @pnas.org. We asked how does past exposure to violence shape the way people think in social situations, and how does that thinking drive future involvement in violence? w/ @sendhil.bsky.social

It’s been an incredible ride @princeton.edu @patricksharkey.bsky.social

Deep breath. I'm honored and excited to join the faculty of America's oldest research university, Johns Hopkins. I'll start this summer as a full professor, one of the founding faculty at the brand-new School of Government and Policy. We're building something unique & important, even historic.

Home - JHU School of Government and Policy

Johns Hopkins School of Government and Policy advances governance with research, data-driven analysis, and innovative solutions to today’s challenges.

sgp.jhu.edu

Yesterday, those who teach Intro to Sociology at Florida colleges (as opposed to universities) received a ready-made curriculum from the state and were ordered to teach it. Yes, you read that correctly. The *state* is enforcing a curriculum on college profs, complete w/ the following restrictions:

Excited to share that I'll be joining Johns Hopkins School of Government and Policy as an Assistant Professor this summer! Looking forward to moving to DC and the work ahead. Thankful to my amazing partner, friends, family, and mentors who have helped me get here.

Update your syllabus and stay on the frontier - it will increase your students’ wages. Epic work by my colleagues @barbarabiasi.com and @profsongma.bsky.social #linkoftheday www.barbarabiasi.com/uploads/1/0/...

Fantastic! Theory in violence interventions is often weak and simplistic. Qualitative work with programme participants is the way to improve.

𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐@mkang.bsky.social · 9mo ago

How does a violence intervention program actually work? We interviewed 99 READI participants to find out. Key finding: They came for the job, stayed for the therapy. crimelab.uchicago.edu/resources/wh...

How does a violence intervention program actually work? We interviewed 99 READI participants to find out. Key finding: They came for the job, stayed for the therapy. crimelab.uchicago.edu/resources/wh...

Why Might READI Chicago Work to Reduce Gun Violence? Qualitative Evidence from the Field - University of Chicago Crime Lab

Building on a body of evidence showing that behavioral science-informed programs can reduce violence among youth and adults, this report highlights findings from a qualitative analysis to understand w...

crimelab.uchicago.edu

“True scholars often work in loneliness, compelled to find reward in the awareness that they have made valuable, even beautiful, contributions to the cumulative structure of human knowledge, whether anyone knows it at the time or not.” — George F. Kennan

"It is not hyperbole to say that the future of higher education in America requires that every university reject it. If any schools capitulate, the pressure will be enormous on all to fold. The only solution is solidarity & collective action against this effort at federal control over higher ed."

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

nytimes.com

As Chicago’s gangs have weakened, it’s become easier for members to leave their groups but harder to avoid violence. My research in Criminology reveals why. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Weaker the gang, harder the exit

This study draws on 95 interviews and observations with gang-affiliated individuals in Chicago to examine how gang structures shape disengagement and desistance from crime. During the last two decade...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Check out our latest @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social piece on the role of states in regulating the proliferation of guns throughout the U.S. www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/sta...

Vital City | State Gun Laws Matter

In our federalist nation, regulation in 50 capitals makes a huge difference.

vitalcitynyc.org

When it comes to dealing with illegal guns in the US, the Pareto Principle reminds us that the vast majority are supplied by a small number of bad dealers. So what can we do? Find out in my new @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social piece, out today in a brand new issue. www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/the...

Vital City | The 80/20 Rule of Gun Supply

Why focusing on the small fraction of problem dealers offers the clearest path to reducing violence

vitalcitynyc.org

Latest issue of @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social is on gun supply, lots of interesting contributions, here is mine (with Dan O'Flaherty) www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/whe...

Vital City | When Products Can Kill

The unfortunate limits of legal gun regulation

vitalcitynyc.org

Excited to see my essay "Gun Culture Then & Now" appear today in a special issue of @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social. Thanks to @mkang.bsky.social for making this issue happen. Please read and share - the whole issue is packed with wonderful essays about the past, present, and future of guns in America.

Vital City | Gun Culture Then and Now

Firearm ownership meant something very different when the United States was founded.

vitalcitynyc.org

Check out the @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social issue on gun supply! This volume is a tour de force on how the U.S. got to have so many guns and what can be done about it. Thanks to @everytown.bsky.social for their support. www.vitalcitynyc.org/issues/issue...

Guns don’t just enable violence; they produce the “shooter” as a durable social identity. Our hidden gem of the week details how the collapse of corporate gang governance and social media’s permanent archives turn youth violence into lifelong stigma. By @mkang.bsky.social buff.ly/98uFxpT

Thanks @the-syllabus.bsky.social for featuring my paper, and @benhr.bsky.social for the heads up. What a cool honor! Working paper here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

As we mourn today's Annunciation Church shooting, the reporting and photojournalism are almost too much to take in; sharing this gift link for those seeking good local coverage from Minneapolis. www.startribune.com/minneapolis-...

Live: Neighbors describe volley of gunfire in attack that killed two children, wounded 17

Sources identified Robin Westman, 23, as the shooter, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene. One source told the Star Tribune Westman’s mother once worked at Annunciation.

startribune.com