James Alan Fox, a professor of criminology at Northeastern University, said that while the drop in homicides follows a ­national trend, it is important to look at the long-term pattern and the corrections that usually follow years with dips or surges. “This is more of a correction than attributable to any one factor,” Fox said. […]

Northeastern University’s Terry Fulmer discusses the budget deal’s health-care changes. She speaks on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart.”

If you are performing “The Star-Spangled Banner’’ at a public event, think twice before using it as dance music or as part of a medley. Deviation from the script can mean a $100 fine. Think twice, too, about cursing at sporting events. A prohibition took effect in 1963, when both Red Sox and Patriots fans […]

On Wednesday, House Speaker Robert DeLeo named Jack McDevitt, an associate dean at Northeastern University, to lead a special commission on gun violence with a possible focus on keeping weapons out of the hands of the mentally ill. McDevitt said the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., has galvanized interest in protecting innocent people from gun violence.

The trouble is, when we do not know the context behind something, we project it ourselves, says Lisa Feldman Barrett, director of the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory at Northeastern University. “Our brains do that automatically,” she says. “When information is stripped away, we add it back. We fill in the information when it’s not there.”

Physical media is dead; long live physical media — particularly of the vinyl variety, as U-Turn Audio’s Orbit breaks the $100,000 mark on Kickstarter to deliver a high-end player at low-fi prices. Boston-based U-Turn Audio is offering backers a chance to pay $150 plus shipping for an opportunity to be one of the first to […]

Homicides in Boston are on track to fall for the third straight year, driven downward by solid police work, an aging population, and better trauma care, according to law enforcement officials and specialists. … Jack Levin, professor of sociology and criminology at Northeastern University, credited the drop in homicides in Boston to police work, a […]

WTKK occupied an ill-defined position among the Boston market’s nonmusic radio stations, according to Fybush and Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University and author of the blog Media Nation. It did not fully embrace conservative talk radio, like WRKO, nor did it blend news and talk like WBZ-AM or WBUR and WGBH. “A […]

James Fox, a professor of criminology at Northeastern University, said it is not unusual for notorious criminals to be buried in undisclosed locations to keep away the media, protesters and potential vandals. He said there could be an increased risk of a gravesite becoming a target in Lanza’s case because he took his own life […]

A routine trip home from a brief vacation in Canada turned into a bit of an adventure for WBUR’s Steve Brown. Here’s a lesson you might draw from his adventure: If you share a name with someone wanted by law enforcement, you may run into some trouble at the border. Steve picks up the story […]

Read the full article (PDF) In the past six years, Northeastern University has vaulted 42 spots in the powerful U.S. News & World Report college rankings. And not merely because it added programs, hired superstar faculty or built fancy facilities. The private school in Boston also has made an all-out effort to increase the number […]

Criminologist James Alan Fox from Northeastern University says gun laws aren’t a guarantee against gun violence. He says we should also try to connect with people who are isolated. “Perhaps we can be on the lookout for those who are suffering in some way, not just because we want to take their guns away, but […]