Fighting Crime

Could the same drug curbing your appetite also curb crime? GLP-1s like Ozempic aren't just reshaping waistlines. Research suggests they could blunt cravings for alcohol, drugs, and even impulsive violence. We visit a halfway house running a pilot treatment program and meet the researchers hoping GLP-1s could transform how America fights addiction and crime... Sources: Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist use and violent crime among US adults; Daniel Semenza, George Thomas (2026) GLP-1 Addiction Treatment Pilot Program; Open Doors and the Center for Addiction Science, Policy and Research (ongoing) The potential role of GLP-1 receptor agonists in substance use disorders – a systematic review; K M Völker, B L H Prechtl, N L Bormann, D S Choi (2026) Fighting Crime is an Indio Media Production for Arnold Ventures © 2026 Arnold Ventures. All rights reserved.

Around a fifth of American women report being raped in their lifetimes, and figures for sexual assault are even higher. One survey shows that a staggering 13.1% of college aged men say they’ve committed rape. What drives men to sexually assault women and how can we target men to prevent these crimes? At the same time, convictions for these crimes are extremely low. One reason for this is the reporting process can be traumatic, and so around 80% of women never report their assault or rape. However with little reporting crime experts also have less data to understand who to target to reduce rape and assaults. So how can we encourage more victims to report, and what are steps we can take to combat these crimes and to keep women and girls safe? If you have been a victim of sexual assault and would like support, you can reach out to the National Sexual Assault Hotline at RAINN.org. Guests: Jens Ludwig, Economist, University of Chicago Jess Ladd, Co-founder of The Fund to Prevent Sexual Assault Kennedy Johnston, Economics PhD student, Texas A&M University

Police officers across the country are reporting high levels of burn out, with many quitting the force after only a year or two. But when stress and fatigue are part of the nature of the job, what can those on the frontline of public safety do about it?  We hear how the power of human connection, sleep training and artificial intelligence are being used to try and make their shifts more manageable. Sources:  Elizabeth Linos , Krista Ruffini, Stephanie Wilcoxen. Reducing Burnout and Resignations among Frontline Workers: A Field Experiment,, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Volume 32, Issue 3, July 2022.  James, L., James, S., & Atherley, L. (2025). The Seattle Police Fatigue Training Experiment. Applied Police Briefings, 2(2), 25–27.

Air quality has always been thought of as a public health problem, but is it an issue for public safety. In this episode, we examine how pollution can impact levels of violent crime. Plus, how poor air quality in prisons creates a hostile environment for inmates and corrections officers. Guests: Dr Anne Chappelle Toxicologist, Trinity Consultants Erich Muehlegger Professor of Economics at University of California, Davis Jeremy Tripp Policy Director, One Voice United Angela Hawken Vice Dean for Research, Johns Hopkins University School of Government and Policy Sources: Air Pollution and Criminal Activity: Evidence from Chicago Microdata by Evan Hernstadt and Erich Muehlegger, 2015 . On-going research into environmental factors and behavioral data at a prison on the East Coast, Dr Angela Haken. Mukherjee A, Sanders NJ. The causal effect of heat on violence: social implications of unmitigated heat among the incarcerated. National Bureau of Economic Research; 2021. Extreme Heat and Suicide Watch Incidents Among Incarcerated Men, David H Cloud, Emory University, Brie A Williams University of California, San Francisco, Regine Haardörfer, Emory University, Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, Vanderbilt University, 2023. Impact of heat on all-cause and cause-specific mortality: A multi-city study in Texas, Chunyu Guo University at Albany, State University of New York, Kevin Lanza The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Dongying Li Texas A&M University, Yuyu Zhou The University of Hong Kong, 2023. Fighting Crime is an Indio Media Production for Arnold Ventures © 2026 Arnold Ventures. All rights reserved.

We all need the right training to do our jobs properly. So what do cops need so they can make better decisions in high-stakes and time-sensitive situations? In this episode we speak to economists about simple and effective training methods which help cops arrest the right people and keep us safer, which also cost next to nothing. We’d love to hear from anyone in policing about interesting things you are trying: Contact us at: podcasts@arnoldventures.org Guests: Paul Noel, Chief of Police, Knoxville Police Department Dr Emily Owens, University of California, Irvine Dr Oeindrila Dube, University of Chicago Sources: Emily Owens, David Weisburd, Karen L. Amendola, Geoffrey P. Alpert, Can You Build a Better Cop? Experimental Evidence on Supervision, Training and Policing in the Community; Criminology and Public Policy, Volume 17, Issue 1 (2018) Oeindrila Dube, Sandy Jo MacArthur, Anuj K. Shah, A Cognitive View of Policing; The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 140, Issue 1, February 2025 Fighting Crime is an Indio Media Production for Arnold Ventures © 2026 Arnold Ventures. All rights reserved.

The use of DNA evidence has revolutionized crime investigations over the past 30 years, helping to catch criminals and keep us all safer. But are we fully using DNA’s potential to catch criminals? In this episode, a victim of sexual assault tells their powerful story of how DNA analysis led to justice, and how exactly DNA can be used to prevent crimes before they even happen. Guests: Ashley Spence, Survivor, and Founder, DNA Justice Project Tiffany Roy, Professor of Forensic DNA Analysis David Rausch, Director, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Max Isaacs, Director of Technology Law & Policy, The Policing Project Jennifer Doleac, Economist Sources: Jennifer Doleac, Anne Sofie Anker and Rasmus Landersø, The Effects of DNA Databases on the Deterrence and Detection of Offenders; American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Vol. 13, No. 4, October 2021 Fighting Crime is an Indio Media Production for Arnold Ventures © 2026 Arnold Ventures. All rights reserved.

American prisons are not designed to be welcoming places. But what if the American prison experience was reimagined, to the benefit of corrections officers and inmates? In this episode, we head to an experimental prison housing unit in Pennsylvania, which is trying to do just that, by incorporating the ethos of a Scandinavian prison. Guests: Allison Murphy, Assistant to the SCI Chester Superintendent Paige Devane, Corrections Officer, Little Scandinavia Gina Clark, SCI Chester Superintendent Professor Jordan Hyatt, Director of the Center for Public Policy, Drexel University Bret Bucklen, Research Director, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Sources: With thanks to John Stark and Swedish Television for the stills and footage from their documentary "Prison Project: Little Scandinavia" © Swedish Television SVT, 2023 Fighting Crime is an Indio Media Production for Arnold Ventures © 2026 Arnold Ventures. All rights reserved.

Getting a good job after prison is one of the best ways to beat recidivism. But what does the evidence actually say about getting formerly incarcerated people back into work? In this episode, we discover some ideas that are helping and hindering people in getting jobs. The solutions are cheaper and simpler than you might expect. Guests: Coss Marte, founder of ConBody and ConBud Dr Amanda Agan, Cornell University Dr Zoe Cullen, Harvard Business School Sources: Amanda Agan, Sonja Starr, Ban the Box, Criminal Records, and Racial Discrimination: A Field Experiment; The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 133, Issue 1, February (2018) Zoe B. Cullen, Will S. Dobbie, and Mitchell Hoffman, Increasing the Demand for Workers with a Criminal Record, NBER Working Paper 29947 (2022) Fighting Crime is an Indio Media Production for Arnold Ventures © 2026 Arnold Ventures. All rights reserved.

There are a bunch of ways to improve public safety that no one is talking about. Launching May 28th, Fighting Crime will dive into the world of crime, policy, and economics, to uncover the evidence of what actually works to improve public safety. It’s not true crime - it’s the truth about crime.