Help the Police, Help Yourself
…hailed as a triumph in the war against violent crime.” And yet Haase and Bennett were not set upon by their criminal brethren and beaten to a pulp. Why not?…
Who decided that we’re fully mature at 18? Should 16-year-olds have the right to vote? And why are young people bringing their parents to job interviews?…
O.K., maybe the steps aren’t so easy. But a program run out of a Toronto housing project has had great success in turning around kids who were headed for trouble.
How is “negative reinforcement” different from punishment? Could positive reinforcement encourage prosocial behavior on a national scale? And what’s the deal with Taiwan’s dog-poop lottery?…
…hailed as a triumph in the war against violent crime.” And yet Haase and Bennett were not set upon by their criminal brethren and beaten to a pulp. Why not?…
…I’ve found in Crocodile Dundee or the Lion King. But the bad man’s view suggests a perverse way that insured victims of crime can immorally turn lemons into lemonade. An…
Curses and other superstitions may have no basis in reality, but that doesn’t stop us from believing.
Jason Fletcher, who teaches public health at Yale, has written earlier on the connection between ADHD and crime. (The gist: “children who experience ADHD symptoms face a substantially increased likelihood…
…stakeholders — police, customs, courts of justice, insurance companies, certification bodies, security companies, transport companies, shippers and cargo owners — put less effort into fighting cargo crime than they should….
If you wanted to get elected President of the United States, which of these would you least like to be? (At least, according to the fraction of those surveyed who…
A couple of years ago, we wrote a column about crack cocaine, which ended with a discussion of the federal sentencing guidelines for crack vs. powder cocaine: This disparity has…
College tends to make people happier, healthier, and wealthier. But how?
Stephen Dubner’s first book, Turbulent Souls, has been optioned by The Group Entertainment (Variety‘s report here), with writer Larry Gross (48 Hours, True Crime, We Don’t Live Here Anymore) to…
“So You Think You Can Be President?” (Related.) From nose to wallet: sellers embrace “scent marketing.” It’s just business: new mob rises in Italy. In MA, minority teacher applicants hurt…
When the computer scientist Ben Zhao learned that artists were having their work stolen by A.I. models, he invented a tool to thwart the machines. He also knows how to…
…inmates pay for their own incarceration costs, thereby easing the burden on taxpayers. Detractors argue, however, that adding to inmates’ debt might push them into more crime and concentrate the…
The debut of a live game show from Freakonomics Radio, with judges Malcolm Gladwell, Ana Gasteyer, and David Paterson….
The famously profane politician and operative is now U.S. ambassador to Japan, where he’s trying to rewrite the rules of diplomacy. But don’t worry: When it comes to China, he’s…
I am writing this at 4:25 a.m. on Friday and I’m a bit woozy. On Wednesday afternoon, my body seriously crashed. On very short notice, my beloved spouse got me…
Could a lack of sleep help explain why some people get much sicker than others?
If you thought the cheating in sumo was bad enough, now they are talking about murder charges….
Reginald Dwayne Betts spent more than eight years in prison. Today he’s a Yale Law graduate, a MacArthur Fellow, and a poet. His nonprofit works to build libraries in prisons…
Pretend you work at a mid-size advertising agency. Would you rather … 1. Be arrested for minor embezzlement and get fired? 2. Be arrested for prostitution (or, more likely, solicitation…
…of gun research, some of which suggests that more guns generally equal more crime, not less. So it is an interesting twist, to say the very least, that gun shows…
…a Starbucks card. Anti-nanotechnology terrorists attack researchers in Mexico. The efficiency of goats. Crime and Punishment through time: a cross country infographic. An etiquette group in Germany just wants workplace…
…The crime rate is appallingly high because the government doesn’t enforce rules that prohibit theft and violence. Traffic fatalities and congestion are both high because they don’t have good traffic…
The gist: the Nobel selection process is famously secretive (and conducted in Swedish!) but we pry the lid off, at least a little bit.
…Freakonomics video “Does Sport Cause Crime“). One thing “One Got Fat” doesn’t mention is helmet use — helmets weren’t widely used until the 1970s, and controversy remains over how effective…
In this live episode of “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know,” we learn why New York has skinny skyscrapers, how to weaponize water, and what astronauts talk about in space….
Ryan Bradley, writing for CNNMoney, highlights an interesting policy experiment currently underway in New York City: a social impact bond geared at reducing recidivism: They are called “social impact bonds.”…
…and took part in a conversation about crime. I happened to have read Freakonomics on the plane ride to my client and mentioned in the conversation that I had just…
