Benjamin Lessing

Benjamin Lessing is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on criminal conflict, governance by non-state actors, and drug-related violence in Latin America. He is the author of *Making Peace in Drug Wars: Crackdowns and Cartels in Latin America* (2017), which examines cartel-state violence in Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil. This work received the Choice Outstanding Academic Title (2018) and has been translated into Spanish. Lessing’s research integrates fieldwork, qualitative data, and policy analysis, with a particular focus on prison gangs, urban governance, and randomized trials of anti-gang interventions in Medellín, Colombia. He co-directs the University of Chicago’s Program on Political Violence (PPV), part of the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism (CPOST). His work bridges academia and policy, addressing issues like state repression, criminal legitimacy, and the counterproductive effects of punitive policies. Lessing holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley (2012) and has conducted fieldwork across Latin America, including with NGOs in Rio de Janeiro and collaborations with Colombian scholars.

Education includes a BA in Economics and Philosophy from Kenyon College and an MA in Economics from UC Berkeley. His research spans comparative politics, armed conflict dynamics, and methodological innovations in conflict studies. He has contributed to *Foreign Affairs*, *The Economist*, and peer-reviewed journals like the *American Political Science Review*. Awards include the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship (2019).