The Crookedest Congressman: The Book on Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham
…will break the earmark fever in Washington. Q: Tell us about the history of bribery in the legislative branch. Was it always considered a crime? How have standards changed? Has…
The state-by-state rollout of legalized weed has given economists a perfect natural experiment to measure its effects. Here’s what we know so far — and don’t know — about the…
…will break the earmark fever in Washington. Q: Tell us about the history of bribery in the legislative branch. Was it always considered a crime? How have standards changed? Has…
A small number of patients with multiple, chronic conditions use a lot of resources. Dr. Jeffrey Brenner found a way to identify and treat them. Could it reduce health-care spending…
The U.S. immigration system is a massively complicated machine, with a lot of worn-out parts. How to fix it? Step one: Get hold of some actual facts and evidence. (We…
A small number of patients with multiple, chronic conditions use a lot of resources. Dr. Jeffrey Brenner found a way to identify and treat them. Could it reduce health care…
…endorsed Freakonomics (by writing a blurb before it was published) even though its explanation of the 1990’s crime drop dismissed as a cause the “broken windows” theory of law enforcement…
…to any budding criminal. It is an excellent “how-to” book for being part of an organized crime ring. More importantly, it shows you the kind of people you will be…
How much does the President of the United States really matter? And: where did all the hitchhikers go? A pair of “attribution errors.” This is a “mashupdate” of “How Much…
Last week’s New Yorker “Annals of Law” column dealt with the increased public interest in forensic crime investigations in the wake of TV shows like CSI. Written by the excellent…
Ecologist Suzanne Simard studies the relationships between trees in a forest: they talk to each other, punish each other, and depend on each other. What can we learn from them?
There are more than twice as many suicides as murders in the U.S., but suicide attracts far less scrutiny. Freakonomics Radio digs through the numbers and finds all kinds of…
…(crime-creating) policy. Second, notwithstanding the culpability of the offenders and the harm suffered by the victims of their crimes, it can be argued that the harm is already done; the…
The world is warmer than ever, and getting hotter. Bapu Jena looks at how heat affects our bodies and our behavior — and how we might adapt to rising temperatures….
…he said matter-of-factly. I had promised readers of this blog that I would ask about the creative, informal ways police respond to crime — sometimes even tolerating certain anti-social or…
Photo: Tony Webster The field of forensics has grown by leaps and bounds over the past several years, so much so that decades-old crime cases can sometimes be solved with…
An election cycle brings about more than voting around the world. There are many odd by-products, often inspired by how the incentives line up for those in power.
…The Wall Street Journal reports that law enforcement officials worldwide are starting to use text messages as a means of fighting crime, offering neighborhood crime alerts, crime reporting systems and…
Climbing the corporate ladder to become head of Nike’s Jordan brand, he kept his teenage murder conviction a secret from employers. Larry talks about living in fear, accepting forgiveness, and…
The families of U.S. troops killed and wounded in Afghanistan are suing several companies that did reconstruction there. Why? These companies, they say, paid the Taliban protection money, which gave…
…living among people of our own race. The old static method, they say, underestimates our willingness to pay to avoid air pollution and crime, but overstates how much we value…
Incarceration has been linked to infectious diseases, mental illness, cancer, and violence. But new research suggests it can extend some people’s lifespans. Bapu investigates the paradox of prison time.
Also: how do phone cameras affect the way we experience live events?…
…Holy Bible almost makes this category. So which way is the causality running here? Does reading Crime and Punishment make you smart or do smart people read Crime and Punishment?…
…you need to prove you were in real danger of being hurt or killed in order to justify the use of deadly force. From a crime deterrence theoretical perspective, this…
…hand at another field: crime writing. And he brings to it the same scientific zeal. His latest book, Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence, traces the roots of…
The Daily Show host grew up as a poor, mixed-race South African kid going to three churches every Sunday. So he has a sui generis view of America — especially…
…and a planeload of food will not cure famine . . . How to find the root cause of a problem . . . Revisiting the abortion-crime link . ….
He’s a former World Bank economist who became a prolific journalist and the author of one of Steve Levitt’s favorite books, The Undercover Economist. Tim Harford lives in England, where…
…shenanigans are hardly limited to the U.S. Arkadipta Ghosh, a researcher with Mathematica Policy Research, found that crime rates (especially property crime) drop in India the year before an election,…
We often look to other countries for smart policies on education, healthcare, infrastructure, etc. But can a smart policy be simply transplanted into a country as culturally unusual (and as…
