Why We Remember Columbine
Some crimes linger in public memory and some crimes fade away. The Columbine massacre didn't just stay with us—it created a script for future murders.
Sociology
Blaming Tech for Teen Troubles
Jonathan Haidt’s clever, insufficient case against smartphones.
Free Speech Advocates Are Often Hypocrites. This Doesn't Make the Cause Less Important.
When people from historically privileged groups are facing censorship, that doesn't mean people in historically marginalized groups are actually being empowered.
Colleen Eren: Why Donald Trump Signed the FIRST STEP Act
The author of Reform Nation explains how celebrity, philanthropy, and activism produced the most significant prison reform in decades.
This Just In: Conspiracy Theorists Not Quite as Kooky as Previously Reported
Greetings from the second International Conspiracy Theory Symposium, where one of the most cited findings in the field has been debunked.
First World Problems
Asian-American communities are full of stark divisions—including splits over whether to see themselves as "Asian Americans" in the first place.
Yale's Nicholas Christakis on the Pandemic Script
"A plague of this kind has been seen as a national security threat by right-wing and left-wing administrations for decades," Christakis says. "Yet I saw nothing to prepare us."
Scott Winship: Don't Believe Horror Stories About Fertility Rates, Income Inequality, and Economic Mobility
Americans have a reputation for being cockeyed optimists, but we're suckers when it comes to "declension narratives" about the fallen state of our world.
Do Mass Shootings Inspire More Mass Shootings? If So, What Can Be Done About That?
Both advocates and skeptics of the copycat theory recommend self-restraint by the news media.
George Kelling, Father of 'Broken Windows' Policing, Dies
Kelling later disavowed the high-volume arrest programs that police departments justified using his theory.
Are Humans Predisposed by Evolution To Get Along?: Podcast
In Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, Nicholas Christakis says natural selection "prewires" us for peaceful co-existence.
The Yale Professor Attacked by Angry Students Over Halloween Costumes Believes Evolution Wants Us To Get Along
In Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, Nicholas Christakis says our common humanity outweighs divisive tribalism.
'Sex Recession' Skepticism
Plus: school choice in court in Wisconsin and a win against eminent domain in New Jersey
How Star Trek Explains Donald Trump
Kirk, Spock, and Khan have much to teach us about contemporary politics.
Tom Wolfe Is Dead but the 'Me Decade' Lives On (and That's a Good Thing)
The world didn't just lose a transformative prose stylist. We lost our guide who still explains the contemporary world.
Are Vegan Men Just Reinforcing Their White Masculine Power? A Sociologist Thinks So, But I'm Skeptical
"I find their performances of masculinity often defy the conventional feminization of meatless diets."
This Sociology Professor Insists Australia Isn't a Country and Failed a Student For Saying Otherwise
"Australia is a continent; it is not a country."
Move Over, Millennial 'Narcissists,' There's a New Generation for the Olds to Get Wrong
Techno-panic finds a new target in Jean Twenge's "Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?"
Listening to Sex Offenders
Their stories are stereotypical and repetitive in ways we've all heard a million times, all our lives-and mostly not from sexual offenders.
Withdrawing from the Crime-Control System
If you think there's a good chance the cops will shoot or beat you, you're less likely to call 911.
The Night JFK Airport Went Mad
Did the authorities contain a hysterical crowd Sunday night, or did they spread the hysteria?
The Dying of the Poor White Americans
Rising white mortality is associated with increasing rates of opioid overdosing, suicides, and alchohol abuse.
The Creation of a Crime Wave
How mass shootings joined a "series of sensational crime categories that have been granted the media's intense spotlight"
The Secret of Donald Trump's Charisma
Watching the candidate find his positions is like watching a man tune a radio.
Another Halloween, Another Crop of Tampered-Treat Hoaxes
Halloween is over. Time for the annual Unraveling of the Tampered-Candy Pranks.
Victimhood Culture in America: Beyond Honor and Dignity
Americans increasingly want and expect adult supervision
Congressional Research Service Releases Study of Mass Shootings
One criminologist's reaction: "This report should calm the fears that many people have that these numbers are out of control."
America's Least Sprawling City Is…Los Angeles?
Forget the clichés. L.A. isn't the capital of sprawl.
Crime Is Down, But Americans Are Convinced It's Rising
Also, some of you are scared of clowns.
Both Gay and Heterosexual Marriages Are Equally Stable
It's past time for gays and lesbians to be given the opportunity to wed. The evidence suggests that they will do no worse in marriage than their fellow heterosexual citizens have done.
Mother Jones Claims the Rate of Mass Shootings Has Tripled Since 2011. Is That True?
A new bottle for some old data
Don't Panic About Ebola—and Don't Panic About People Panicking Either
Public hysteria isn't the problem.
The FBI Says 'Active Shooter Incidents' Are On the Rise. What Does That Mean?
Decoding a new crime study
Who Rules America?
Joel Kotkin's new book fingers Silicon Valley as the new elite. Is he right?
Generational Generalizations Gone Wrong
How the guys who coined the word millennials missed the mark
The Trouble with Conspiracy Science
What the social scientists and psychologists who study conspiracy theories get wrong.
From Seattle to Ferguson: The Problem with 'Crowd Control'
This goes deeper than the rise of the warrior cop.
The Vegas Shootings, the Bundy Ranch, and the Splits on the Radical Right
The dynamics of radical politics.
