Thomas Abt

Thomas Abt (born 1972) is an American author, crime researcher, and former government official specializing in evidence-informed approaches to reducing crime in urban areas. His book, Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Streets, was published in June 2019 by Basic Books.

Early life Abt grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father is Clark C. Abt, an MIT-trained engineer and founder of the social-science research firm Abt Associates and his mother, Wendy (née Peter) was educated at Harvard and is a banking and economic-development consultant.

Views on crime Abt favors an approach to crime prevention that emphasizes eliminating violence directly, rather than focusing on its other associations, which include such things as poverty, gangs and drugs, and his 2019 book substantiates this claim with an extensive review of the data.

Career Abt began his career after graduating law school in 2000 as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office for four years,

Abt is a nationally recognized researcher and expert on crime. His work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Economist, Foreign Affairs, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and on MSNBC, PBS, National Public Radio, among other places. His TED talk on saving lives by stopping violence has been viewed more than 200,000 times. Abt also serves as a regular featured speaker at MPD's DC Police Leadership Academy.