“There’s no reliable way we can identify th ose few who will pick up a gun and start shooting people from the vast number who might seem odd or unusual or even scary,” said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminologist who has studied and written about mass killings. “You can’t predict it. Did they […]

In 2014, researchers at Northeastern University found that top Web sites, such as Home Depot, Orbitz and Travelocity, were steering some users toward more expensive products. And this year, another study found that users who were identified by Google as female received fewer ads for a high-paying job.

Boston — IS psychology in the midst of a research crisis? An initiative called the Reproducibility Project at the University of Virginia recently reran 100 psychology experiments and found that over 60 percent of them failed to replicate — that is, their findings did not hold up the second time around. The results, published last […]

To the older consumers, it’s more obvious a product is being advertised when brands post content on social media. But teens do not see it this way, said Northeastern University communications professor Brooke Foucault Welles, who researches high schoolers’ social media habits. Gen Z sees the content as experiences they want to remake. “They really […]

“There are certain cities that have had short term spikes, but we would not be noticing it were it not for fact that we have seen some successes over the past few years,” James Alan Fox, a professor of criminology at Northeastern University, told The Christian Science Monitor in June.

Yet that does not mean that government policy is unimportant. Daniel Aldrich, a political scientist, showed that in a series of Asian disasters, villages with stronger and more participatory local government rebuilt faster and better. Building infrastructure for tighter and more successful communities is the business of government, and it can be pursued through policies […]

Three hundred cyclist crossed the Boston Marathon finish line after a grueling four-day ride from Ground Zero in New York. “It’s a fun ride, you meet a ton of people,” said Northeastern University police officer Bob Maloney. “Very tiring, but I love it and it’s a great ride. Maloney was one of 60 from the […]

Criminal Defense Attorney J.W. Carney discusses the New Hampshire prep school rape case. Northeastern University Law Professor Roger Abrams (@rogeriabrams) and sports reporter Chris Collins (@HeyCollins) talk deflategate. WGBH’s Adam Reilly (@reillyadam) goes on an Allston Christmas adventure.

“I don’t think it’s at all ridiculous for the United States to take that threat seriously,” said Max Abrahms, a Northeastern University professor who studies terrorism. “For instance, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Islamists were sent via the northern border to attack the United States. That hasn’t, of course, been the current strategy.”

A new program aims to give people confidence when they head to court by helping them to understand the judicial system.

But the storm, which killed 1,800 and caused $108 billion in damage, also set Aldrich’s own work on a new course. Back in Boston, he found himself fascinated by disaster recovery and what it meant. He had finished his previous work on nuclear power in Japan and now focused on new questions: What creates resilience? […]

For cities, addressing the affordability challenge is a tough task that requires innovation, said Barry Bluestone, director of the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University in Boston. “My perception,” he said, “is that the pressure has grown so dramatically since a decade ago, when we had the housing […]