Philip Cook

Philip J. Cook joined the Duke faculty in 1973 and is now the Terry Sanford Professor emeritus of public policy, economics, and sociology at Duke University.  Much of his research has focused on understanding how and why to separate guns from violence through effective regulation and law enforcement.  He is currently working with the University of Chicago Crime Lab where he is scientific director of a project to increase clearance rates in gun assaults and murders.  He is author or co-author of books on alcohol control (Paying the Tab), state lotteries (Selling HopeHarvard, 1989), the increasing inequality of income (The Winner-Take-All Society, a New York Times “Notable Book of the year”, The Free Press 1995), the economic costs of gun violence (Gun Violence: The Real Costs Oxford 2000), and, with Kristin Goss, The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford, 2014, 2020).  He has served as a consultant with the US Department of Justice Criminal Division and the US Department of Treasury Enforcement Division.  Cook is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, and a fellow of the American Society of Criminology.