Freakonomics Characters & Character Analysis

Freakonomics Important People

James Alan Fox

A noted criminologist, James Alan Fox is one of many experts who, in the 1990s, warn that America is about to experience a horrifying wave of violent crime. Fox's dire predictions later turn out to be wrong when crime rates in fact plummet all over the country in the 1990s.

Arne Duncan

Duncan is the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools in 2002. After learning that a study reveals that high-stakes testing is causing some teachers in the Chicago public school system to cheat, Duncan contacts the study's authors to verify whether the teachers in his schools really are cheating.

Roland G. Fryer

Fryer is a Harvard economist who has studied black underachievement. Fryer, a black man, is abandoned by his mother when he is little, is abused by his father and is a juvenile delinquent. Despite all odds to the contrary, however, Fryer is now living a successful life as a Harvard professor. Much...
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