Students of racial violence in the United States identify three discrete periods of such terror after slavery: the era of the noose from 1890 to 1930; the Jim Crow/Civil Rights years; and the current experience of mass incarceration. Police brutality — now more visible than ever, more disruptive of the post-racial fiction than any other […]

Priced-out buyers who have given up on owning a home could explain sky-high rental prices, as people have resigned themselves to renting, said Barry Bluestone, professor of public policy at Northeastern University, who has studied Boston real estate for years. “They’re caught between this rock and hard place. On one hand, there’s very little available […]

Once again we are reminded that nothing is forever; not now, not ever, never. On June 23 Great Britain’s electorate voted to quit the 28-member European Union despite threats that economic Armageddon will follow. The Brexit vote represented the sort of populist victory over establishment politics that give elites, few of whom have the scars […]

“We’re looking at a paradox because on the one hand Islamic State is clearly getting weaker as an organization in its strongholds of Iraq and Syria and yet the impression that many people have is that the group is more dangerous than ever, especially outside its core conflict zone,” says Max Abrahms, professor of political […]

The move by the probation department comes as the electronic monitoring program continues to lose track of hundreds of people each month, people whom it is supposed to be watching. “I call these modern-day ball and chains with a major defect,” said a woman on probation. The woman agreed to talk with 5 Investigates about […]

According to Citizens for Adequate Housing, Massachusetts’ housing wage (the minimum hourly wage needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment) is $24.08, which is 282 percent above the state’s minimum wage of $8.50 and well above the national average of $18.62. Those numbers explain why the family shelters here are full. Over 4,500 families are part […]

Thanks to Facebook Live, nearly anybody with a cellphone can be a broadcast journalist. And this week’s tragic events prove that many people welcome the opportunity. Instead of rushing to save themselves, eyewitnesses grabbed their phones and shared their stories with the world. “I do think it’s a kind of watershed moment in terms of […]

In the wake of the Orlando shootings and lacking congressional action regarding gun reform legislation, many are calling attention to the the devastating truths about gun violence in the United States. One of the vocal supporters advocating for tighter gun restrictions is Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. Wasserman Schultz took to her Medium page to […]

As the use of deadly force by police once again roils the nation, the number of fatal shootings by officers has increased from 465 in the first six months of last year to 491 for the same period this year, according to an ongoing two-year study by The Washington Post. This year has also seen […]

While spring college graduation ceremonies are nothing new, 2016 is unique. This year, members of America’s next generation – otherwise known as Generation Z – donned their caps and gowns for the first time. According to a 2014 study by Northeastern University, more than two out of every five members of Generation Z, or 42 […]

Researchers are adding bugs to experimental software code in order to ultimately wind up with programs that have fewer vulnerabilities. The idea is to insert a known quantity of vulnerabilities into code, then see how many of them are discovered by bug-finding tools. By analyzing the reasons bugs escape detection, developers can create more effective […]

Andrea Matwyshyn, a law professor at Northeastern University Law School, and David Levine, a professor at the Elon University School of Law, discuss a federal appeals court ruling that could make it easier for the government to bring criminal charges against people who share passwords for online accounts. In a 2-1 decision, the Ninth Circuit […]