Thomas Abt

Thomas Abt is a Senior Fellow for the Council on Criminal Justice and former Senior Research Fellow and Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy with the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School. Since January 2020, Abt has been directing the Council's Violent Crime Working Group. Prior to that, he served as Research Director for the Evidence-Informed Violence Reduction Project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development’s Central American Regional Security Initiative (USAID CARSI). His work emphasizes research and evidence-informed policies and practices to reduce various forms of violence, including gun, gang, and youth violence.

Abt started his professional journey as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office. Later, he contributed his expertise as an associate with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, focusing on litigation. Before joining the Council on Criminal Justice, he held significant positions in government, including Deputy Secretary for Public Safety to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. In this role, he oversaw all criminal justice and homeland security agencies and helped to establish the Governor’s Commission on Youth, Public Safety, and Justice. Additionally, he served as Chief of Staff to the Office of Justice Programs at the US Department of Justice, where he played a pivotal role in establishing the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention.

Abt's academic background includes a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Michigan and a J.D. degree with honors from Georgetown University Law Center. His acclaimed book, "Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Streets," was published in June 2019, adding to his credentials as an author and crime researcher. Notably, in November 2022, Abt was appointed as an associate research professor and founding director of the Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction at the University of Maryland's Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice.