Roderick L. Ireland, the former chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, will serve as an adviser to the House of Representatives as it crafts a wide-ranging bill aimed at reforming the state’s criminal justice system. Ireland was the court’s first African-American chief justice. He is now a professor of criminology and criminal justice […]

As Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox has written, in a database of indiscriminate mass shootings—defined as those with four or more victims—compiled by the Stanford Geospatial Center, just 15 percent of the assailants had a psychotic disorder, and 11 percent had paranoid schizophrenia. (Other studies have come to a higher estimate, suggesting about 23 […]

Under the rule, ballpark owners need only provide screening behind home plate, with enough room for fans who choose to sit there. Anyone outside the screened area — along the baselines, behind the dugout or in the outfield — is considered to have assumed the risk of injury from foul balls, errant throws and broken […]

Yesterday was the first Monday in October, which is opening day for the United States Supreme Court’s new term. Closer to home, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts is holding oral arguments in appellate cases this week, as it does the first week of each between from September and May. WGBH’s Morning Edition host Joe […]

Most gun owners possess an average of three firearms, according to a comprehensive national survey co-led by Northeastern University and Harvard University released in September 2016. Meanwhile, 130 million guns — half the country’s firearms — are owned by just three percent of Americans, or 7.7 million people. These “super owners” own 17 guns on […]

Criminology and public-policy professor James Alan Fox of Boston’s Northeastern University in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” implored the media not to refer to mass shootings as the biggest of their kind, the No. 1, the worst, etc., as such superlatives, in the depraved mind of a would-be killer, may serve as additional motivation.

3% Proportion of people who own half of the country’s guns, according to an unpublished Harvard/Northeastern University survey result summary. Anchoring this group are America’s gun super-owners – an estimated 7.7 million Americans who own between eight and 140 guns.

Thousands of Americans fit the profile of a mass shooter. Seemingly straightforward strategies for deterring would-be killers have their weaknesses, writes Northeastern professor James Alan Fox.

“We don’t know if these folks are overwhelmingly pro-statehood, or pro-commonwealth…. We have no idea who’s leaving the island,” said Amilcar Barreto, an associate professor of political science, international affairs and public policy at Northeastern University.

That initial confusion is common during mass shootings, said James Allen Fox, a Northeastern University criminologist. Locating a gunman is even more challenging when he is perched above the ground, in a building covered in blinding gold windows. “He was camouflaged,” Fox said. “It would be hard to find him at such a high profile.”

Northeastern University’s Jack Levin has been studying mass murder and serial killings for years. He says we may never know the reason why Stephen Paddock went on a rampage in Las Vegas Sunday night, but he did offer some explanations.

“People shouldn’t avoid Las Vegas because this shooting happened there,” Northeastern University criminology professor and mass shooting expert James Alan Fox said in an interview. “You’re more likely to die on the way to a casino in a car accident.”