Paddock was at an even higher distance and armed with weapons modified to rapidly fire when he began his relentless attack on the crowd below. He was able to create a setting similar to that of a battlefield, said James Allen Fox, a Northeastern University criminologist who researches mass killings.

While some statistics point to a rise in mass shooting frequency and deadliness, Northeastern University criminology professor James Alan Fox, says there is no clear evidence, especially since there is a lack of consistent benchmarks and no common definition of a mass shooting used by those gathering statistics. “Some years are worse than others –  it swings up and down for no […]

The Nation recently published a splendid takedown of Randall Smith, a little-known Wall Street tycoon whose avarice has hollowed out daily newspapers from coast to coast. By “gutting” his papers, Julie Reynolds reports, Smith was able to amass the $57 million he needed to buy 16 mansions in Palm Beach, Florida. “Don’t just blame the Internet for […]

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.