Topics

In policing, as in most vocations, the best employees are often promoted into leadership without much training. One economist thinks he can address this problem — and, with it, America’s gun violence.

• SOURCES
  • Kenneth Corey, director of outreach and engagement for the Policing Leadership Academy at the University of Chicago and retired chief of department for the New York Police Department.
  • Stephanie Drescher,...

In the early 1970s, Marty Goddard was worried about the high rates of sexual assault in Chicago. She learned from police that evidence from sexual assault cases often wasn’t collected properly — or at all. “They said, ‘We don’t get evidence.’ And this really kicked everything off.” Criminal is going back on tour in February! We’ll be telling brand new stories, live on stage....

Most industries have become more productive over time. But not construction! We identify the causes — and possible solutions. (Can you say ... “prefab”?)

RESOURCES:

• "The Strange and Awful Path of Productivity in the US Construction Sector," by Austan Goolsbee and Chad Syverson (BFI Working Paper, 2023).
• "Infrastructure Costs," by Leah Brooks and Zachary D. Liscow (American Economic Journal: Applied, 2023).
• "The Silicon...

Evidence from Nazi Germany and 1940’s America (and pretty much everywhere else) shows that discrimination is incredibly costly — to the victims, of course, but also the perpetrators. One modern solution is to invoke a diversity mandate. But new research shows that’s not necessarily the answer.

RESOURCES:

• "Discrimination, Managers, and Firm Performance: Evidence from 'Aryanizations' in Nazi Germany," by Kilian Huber, Volker Lindenthal,...

In the final chapter of our coverage of H.H.Holmes, we talk about the theories connecting him to Jack the Ripper, his final days on the run and a trial and execution that has gone down in history.

Thank you to Dave White for research assistance.

References

Boston Daily Globe. 1895. "At Burlington." Boston Daily Globe, August 8: 7.

—. 1894. "Believes husband dead." Boston...

Daniel Taylor was 17 years old when he was arrested for a 1992 double homicide in Chicago. But Daniel had an alibi. He was in jail at the time of the murders. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow. Listen back through our archives at youtube.com/criminalpodcast....

On September 29, 1982, Adam Janus suddenly collapsed in his home outside of Chicago. He died within hours. Later that same day, in the same house, his brother also collapsed — then his sister-in-law. All three of them had been healthy. Nobody could figure out what was going on. Stacy St. Clair and Christy Gutowski reported an investigative series looking back on the Tylenol...

President Biden has heralded the recent gun safety bill as the most significant federal attempt to reduce gun violence in 30 years.

But after a gunman opened fire from a rooftop onto a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb, questions abound about what the landmark legislation will — and will not — achieve.

Guest: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a Washington correspondent covering health...

As the highly infectious Omicron variant surged, a high-stakes battle played out between Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago and the city’s teachers’ union about how to keep schools open and safe.

We chart this battle on the ground in Chicago, speaking with teachers, parents and students about the standoff.

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On May 8, 2013, a man named Timothy Jones was arrested in Chicago. He says it wasn’t until he got to the police station that he found out that he was being charged with murder. He didn’t even know someone had died. Earlier that day, a woman named Jacqueline Reynolds had been driving through the intersection of 76th and Yates Boulevard when she was...