Crime
Jul. 18, 2011
The Whitey Bulger book I’d like to read
Wishing for a book that tells the real story of the Bulger brothers.
Tags: crime novels · Whitey Bulger
May. 9, 2011
Why are we attracted to crime stories?
What does our attraction to crime stories tell us about ourselves?
Tags: crime novels
Jun. 2, 2010
A Hangman’s Metaphysics
Nietzsche on free will and guilt.
Tags: Defending Jacob · free will · Nietzsche · philosophy
May. 11, 2010
The Murder Gene
The Murder Gene may indeed be junk science, for now at least, but it is a haunting idea.
Tags: behavioral genetics · Defending Jacob · law · science
Mar. 14, 2010
The issue is inequality, not total wealth
On almost every index of quality of life, or wellness, or deprivation, there is a gradient showing a strong correlation between a country’s level of economic inequality and its social outcomes. … This has nothing to do with total wealth or even the average per-capita income. America is one of the world’s richest nations, with [...]
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Mar. 8, 2010
Life Magazine Photos of Boston’s Strangler Days
A trove of remarkable photographs of Boston during the Strangler siege. The photos, which are eerie and beautiful, were taken by Arthur Rickerby for Life Magazine. View the whole collection here. Above: A woman wears a hatpin in her sleeve to defend herself against the Strangler, 1963.
Tags: The Strangler
Sep. 18, 2009
Biocriminology
“There’s certainly a brain basis to crime … the brains of violent criminals are physically and functionally different from the rest of us.”— Adrian Raine A burgeoning science suggests that crime is caused in part by biological factors, that is, by traits inherited through DNA or by the brain malfunctioning in very specific ways. Adrian [...]
Tags: behavioral genetics · Defending Jacob · law · science · video
Jul. 10, 2009
Why the Strangler?
A reader suggests that I use this blog to share a little about how my books develop from initial concept to final draft. I’ll try, but readers should understand that a strange sort of apathy descends as soon as a project is finished. When I am writing, I am obsessed with the book being drafted, [...]
Tags: The Strangler
Jun. 12, 2009
The Economics of Dealing Crack
At TED in 2004, Steven Levitt, the University of Chicago economist and co-author of Freakonomics, analyzes the economics of the street-corner crack trade. Contrary to popular belief, the “corner boys” make less than minimum wage — for a job with a higher mortality rate than death row. The Freakonomics blog is also worth a visit.
Tags: crack · drugs · Steven Levitt · TED talks · video
