Researchers like Twitter because almost all tweets are open, and the company provides an easy way to download the data, says Northeastern University computer scientist Alan Mislove, who worked on a study measuring “the pulse of the nation” published in 2010. “You can get a large sample of data that covers a whole country or […]

Lawyers say preparing a parole application based on a claim of innocence is risky, because parole boards want to see inmates say they are sorry. A defendant who lacks remorse is considered more likely to commit other crimes. Indeed, a guilty person who pretends to be remorseful is more likely to be released than a […]

Vijay Govindarajan is a professor of international business at Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College. Ravi Ramamurti is a professor at Northeastern University and director of its Center for Emerging Markets. They are co-authors of the article “Delivering World-Class Healthcare Affordably,” in the current issue of Harvard Business Review. No matter how the fight over […]

The safe and efficient movement of goods and people is critical to our economy. Boston’s population and number of jobs are growing, and transportation investment has a crucial role to play in creating enough capacity for all who want to both live and work in Boston. According to a2012 Northeastern University research report, the MBTA […]

Opinions differ as to whether a child’s discipline in one answer means the same will apply in the other two. One of Karlan’s partners this year, economist Jodi Beggs of Northeastern University, meticulously rations out her candy but throws her costume together at the last minute. “You would really hurt this prediction,” Karlan told her […]

Homicide rates have plummeted nationally since the mid-1990s. Even so, Portland’s homicide rate on a per capita basis has been among the nation’s lowest for years. And though academic criminologists offer a host of data-driven theories that they say correlate a variety of policies and demographics with murder rates, none appear to fully explain why […]

These numbers are part of the reason Jack Levin, a sociology and criminology professor at Boston’s Northeastern University, isn’t surprised that four mass killings happened in such a short time. “Murders don’t distribute themselves evenly over a 12-month period,” Levin said. “Just because we see four occurring in proximity to each other doesn’t mean we […]

Northeastern University Professor James Alan Fox argued that from 2006 to 2009, the violent crime rates for Boston, Mass., spiked on three dates each year: New Year’s Day, Independence Day and Halloween. Writing for the “Crime and Punishment” blog at Boston.com in 2011, Fox stated that not only was Halloween a horrible time for criminal […]

Got it? Gang violence doesn’t count; nor does domestic violence, even when a whole family is slaughtered. And of course, such a tally excludes extremely public mass attacks like the Boston Marathon bombings or intensely private rampages like Saturday’s Brooklyn stabbings, since the suspects didn’t use guns. That rankles Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox, who in […]

[VIDEO] Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius apologized for the woes of the government’s health-insurance website, which suffered an outage as she testified in Congress. Louise Radnofsky and John Auerbach, Northeastern University Institute on Urban Health Research director, join the News Hub.  

For many serious fans, social media has enhanced the experience of watching a live sporting event. Dan Lebowitz, executive director of The Center for the Study of Sport at Northeastern University, said sports is naturally a “collective conversation,” and that social media allows fans to immerse themselves even deeper. “It’s sort of the ultimate sports […]

Technological improvements in health care have given us the quality of life we enjoy today. But chronic conditions, end-of-life care, and an aging society will bankrupt the United States if it doesn’t make dramatic changes to its health care system. America — and many other countries — need an audacious goal to get off the unsustainable path. […]