David Kennedy, a professor of criminal justice and faculty chair of the National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, spoke to a large group of students and faculty about the evidence-based “focused deterrence” framework Kennedy developed as part of the ground-breaking Boston Gun Project in the mid-1990s (in partnership with Rutgers PhD graduate Anthony Braga).

The SCJ-GSA event, moderated by PhD candidate Madison Baczuk and titled “Reflecting and Revisioning: SCJ in Dialogue with David Kennedy,” featured the professor’s successful interventions to address homicide, gun violence, drug markets, firearms trafficking, prison safety, police legitimacy, and other critical public safety issues, as well as a broader action-research framework to identify and address such problems.

Kevin Bacon’s character in the Showtime series “City on a Hill” was modeled on Kennedy’s role in Boston.