Jack Levin
Biographic Data
| ID | 3619732 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jack Levin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jack |
| FAMILY NAME | Levin |
| SIGNATURE | LEVIN J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Northeastern University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0965-0790 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 51 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 169 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 51 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1947 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Cost Analysis of Corequisite Developmental Education in Mathematics: Evidence From the Kentucky Community and Technical College System
Objective: In recent years, many colleges have switched developmental education (DE) from prerequisite models to corequisite models. While extensive literature has demonstrated that corequisite DE is more effective at helping underprepared students achieve better college outcomes, less attention has been given to its costs and cost effectiveness. This study estimates the cost and cost effectiveness of the mathematics corequisite model under the K…
The Will to Kill: Making Sense of Senseless Murder
xiv, 367 pages ; 26 cm
Covering Mass Murder: An Experimental Examination of the Effect of News Focus—Killer, Victim, or Hero—on Reader Interest
Journalists often assume that consumers are drawn to stories of mass murder because of their morbid curiosity. As a result, cable television reports and news stories tend to focus on details of the killer’s biography and modus operandi, possibly neglecting aspects of an incident that could provide consumers with practical knowledge for preventing a massacre and, at the same time, would not inspire future killers looking for fame and celebrity. Fo…
Are People More Disturbed by Dog or Human Suffering
This research examines whether people are more emotionally disturbed by reports of non-human animal than human suffering or abuse. Two hundred and fifty-six undergraduates at a major northeastern university were asked to indicate their degree of empathy for a brutally beaten human adult or child versus an adult dog or puppy, as described in a fictitious news report. We hypothesized that the vulnerability of victims—determined by their age and not…
Hate Crimes
Hate crimes target victims who are different in some socially significant way. Most offenders are dabblers—that is, they commit hate crimes on a part‐time basis and do not belong to any organized hate group. As a result, it is possible to reach hatemongers—especially youthful first‐offenders—before they perpetrate major offenses. Moreover, structuring opportunities for interdependence has proven to be an effective means for preventing hate violen…
Hate Crimes
From Thrill to Defensive Motivation: The Role of Group Threat in the Changing Nature of Hate-Motivated Assaults
In the aftermath of the September 11 attack on America, thrill-motivated hate crimes tended to decline as the rate of violent crime generally declined, but defensive hate crimes seemed to increase substantially. Just as individual factors were important in accounting for thrill-motivated hate attacks, so group factors became important for the purpose of explaining defensive hate crimes. The purpose of the present study was to apply group threat t…
Hate Crimes: The Rising Tide of Bigotry and Bloodshed
The Nature and Prevalence of Familicide in the United States, 2000–2009
Mass Murder at School and Cumulative Strain: A Sequential Model
To explain the genesis of mass murder committed by students at their schools, the authors propose a five-stage sequential model in which several criminological theories (strain theory, control theory, and routine activities theory) are brought to bear collectively to demonstrate their cumulative effect. These stages are as follows: chronic strain, uncontrolled strain, acute strain, the planning stage, and the massacre. Long-term frustrations (chr…
Hate Crimes
The term hate crimes has been employed since the mid‐1980s to identify criminal acts motivated either entirely or in part by the fact or perception that a victim is different from the perpetrator. The term first appeared in newspaper accounts of a 1986 racial incident in the Howard Beach section of New York City, in which a black man was killed while attempting to flee a violent mob of white teenagers, shouting racial slurs. By the early 1990s th…
Promoting Respect for Difference on the College Campus: The Role of Interdependence
Thirty-nine undergraduate students participated in an experiment to determine the impact of cooperation and fear of terrorism on student support for Muslims on campus. As expected, participants whose fear of terrorism was low expressed significantly greater support for Muslim students than did their more fearful counterparts. Moreover, participants in both the high and the low cooperation condition were significantly more supportive of Muslims on…
When a Crime Committed by a Teenager Becomes a Hate Crime: Results From Two Studies
This article examines the conditions under which a crime committed by a teenager comes to be viewed as a hate-motivated offense. In Study 1, the age of the perpetrator and the level of evidence were experimentally manipulated for male and female subjects. The dependent variable consisted of the likelihood that an interracial encounter was a hate crime. Our results suggest that female subjects were significantly more likely than their male counter…
Hate Crime Offenders: An Expanded Typology
Little research has been conducted to determine the motivations of hate crime offenders. This article builds on an earlier work of J. Levin and McDevitt (1993) in which a typology of offender motivations was first articulated. We reanalyze 169 Boston police case files that were originally studied in order to provide empirical grounding for the typology. In this updated study, characteristics of the three original motives—thrill, defensive, and mi…
Hate Crimes and Ethnic Conflict: An Introduction
Social Problems: Causes, Consequences, Interventions
The Relationship of Animal Abuse to Violence and Other Forms of Antisocial Behavior
Results from this study challenge the assumption that animal abusers commonly “graduate” from violence against animals to violence against humans. The criminal records of 153 animal abusers and 153 control participants were tracked and compared. Animal abusers were more likely than control participants to be interpersonally violent, but they also were more likely to commit property offenses, drug offenses, and public disorder offenses. Thus, ther…
Multiple Homicide: Patterns of Serial and Mass Murder
Over the past decade the topic of multiple homicide-serial and mass murder-has attracted increased attention in the field of criminology. Though far from the epidemic suggested in media reports, it is alarming nonetheless that a small number of offenders account for so much human destruction and widespread fear. The serial killer is typically a white male in his late twenties or thirties who targets strangers encountered near his work or home. Th…
Sociology: Snapshots and Portraits of Society
The aim of this introductory text in sociology is to hook students' interest and get them to read, see and think sociologically. The book includes snapshots' (journalistic accounts) and portraits' (empirical sociological studies). Each part is introduced with an essay which ties the snapshots and portraits together and explains where and who the big ideas of the discipline came from, their context, and how they continue to be applicable to our th…
Sociological Snapshots
Firing Back: The Growing Threat of Workplace Homicide
Homicides committed against supervisors and coworkers by disgruntled employees have grown at a disturbing rate in the American workplace. Increasingly, embittered employees and ex-employees are seeking revenge through violence and murder for alleged mistreatment on the job. This article examines patterns and trends in available data and presents a theoretical profile of those who kill at the work site. It suggests that the typical homicide of emp…
Hate Crimes
Reign of Terror
Elementary Statistics in Social Research
Brief Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Why the Social Researcher Uses Statistics PART ONE: Description Chapter 2: Organizing the Data Chapter 3: Measures of Central Tendency Chapter 4: Measures of Variability PART TWO: From Description to Decision Making Chapter 5: Probability and the Normal Curve Chapter 6: Samples and Populations PART THREE: Decision Making Chapter 7: Testing Differences between Means Chapter 8: Analysis of Variance Chapter 9: Non…
Sociology of educational late blooming
Hate Crime Offenders: An Expanded Typology
Little research has been conducted to determine the motivations of hate crime offenders. This article builds on an earlier work of J. Levin and McDevitt (1993) in which a typology of offender motivations was first articulated. We reanalyze 169 Boston police case files that were originally studied in order to provide empirical grounding for the typology. In this updated study, characteristics of the three original motives—thrill, defensive, and mi…
Mass Murder at School and Cumulative Strain: A Sequential Model
To explain the genesis of mass murder committed by students at their schools, the authors propose a five-stage sequential model in which several criminological theories (strain theory, control theory, and routine activities theory) are brought to bear collectively to demonstrate their cumulative effect. These stages are as follows: chronic strain, uncontrolled strain, acute strain, the planning stage, and the massacre. Long-term frustrations (chr…
An exploratory analysis of sex differences in gossip
The Analysis of Communication Content: Developments in Scientific Theories and Computer Techniques
Multiple Homicide: Patterns of Serial and Mass Murder
Over the past decade the topic of multiple homicide-serial and mass murder-has attracted increased attention in the field of criminology. Though far from the epidemic suggested in media reports, it is alarming nonetheless that a small number of offenders account for so much human destruction and widespread fear. The serial killer is typically a white male in his late twenties or thirties who targets strangers encountered near his work or home. Th…
Are People More Disturbed by Dog or Human Suffering
This research examines whether people are more emotionally disturbed by reports of non-human animal than human suffering or abuse. Two hundred and fifty-six undergraduates at a major northeastern university were asked to indicate their degree of empathy for a brutally beaten human adult or child versus an adult dog or puppy, as described in a fictitious news report. We hypothesized that the vulnerability of victims—determined by their age and not…
Firing Back: The Growing Threat of Workplace Homicide
Homicides committed against supervisors and coworkers by disgruntled employees have grown at a disturbing rate in the American workplace. Increasingly, embittered employees and ex-employees are seeking revenge through violence and murder for alleged mistreatment on the job. This article examines patterns and trends in available data and presents a theoretical profile of those who kill at the work site. It suggests that the typical homicide of emp…
Homicide Against the Elderly: A Research Note
By virtue of the type of data generally used (victim surveys), previous research on the victimization of the elderly is limited in two respects. Not only is the crime of homicide outside the domain of victimization data, but sample surveys uncover too few incidents of victimization of the elderly to permit in‐depth analyses. Using the supplementary homicide reports from 1976–1985, we compared patterns and rates of homicide among the elderly and y…
Gossip Columns: Media Small Talk
Journal Article Gossip Columns: Media Small Talk Get access Jack Levin, Jack Levin 1Jack Levin is Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University. Allan J. Kimmel is a graduate student in social psychology at Temple University. The authors are grateful to Barbara Myers, David O'Brien, and Sharon Harrell who participated in a test of intercoder reliability Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google …
The Nature and Prevalence of Familicide in the United States, 2000–2009
Hate Crimes and Ethnic Conflict: An Introduction
Are the times changing? An analysis of gender differences in sexual graffiti
Punk and Middle-Class Values: A Content Analysis
Differential Effects of Complementary and Competing Variables in Primacy-Recency
Covering Mass Murder: An Experimental Examination of the Effect of News Focus—Killer, Victim, or Hero—on Reader Interest
Journalists often assume that consumers are drawn to stories of mass murder because of their morbid curiosity. As a result, cable television reports and news stories tend to focus on details of the killer’s biography and modus operandi, possibly neglecting aspects of an incident that could provide consumers with practical knowledge for preventing a massacre and, at the same time, would not inspire future killers looking for fame and celebrity. Fo…
From Thrill to Defensive Motivation: The Role of Group Threat in the Changing Nature of Hate-Motivated Assaults
In the aftermath of the September 11 attack on America, thrill-motivated hate crimes tended to decline as the rate of violent crime generally declined, but defensive hate crimes seemed to increase substantially. Just as individual factors were important in accounting for thrill-motivated hate attacks, so group factors became important for the purpose of explaining defensive hate crimes. The purpose of the present study was to apply group threat t…
When a Crime Committed by a Teenager Becomes a Hate Crime: Results From Two Studies
This article examines the conditions under which a crime committed by a teenager comes to be viewed as a hate-motivated offense. In Study 1, the age of the perpetrator and the level of evidence were experimentally manipulated for male and female subjects. The dependent variable consisted of the likelihood that an interracial encounter was a hate crime. Our results suggest that female subjects were significantly more likely than their male counter…
Sociology of educational late blooming
Hippie Values: An Analysis of the Underground Press
Response to Scheuneman
A Twentieth-Century Congress
A Twentieth-Century Congress. By Estes Kefauver and Jack Levin. Foreword by Robert M. La Follette, Jr. (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1947. xiv + 236 pp. Index. $3.00.) James MacGregor Burns James MacGregor Burns Williams College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 34, Issue 3, December 1947, Pages 513–514, https://doi.org/10.2307/1898138 Published: 01 December 1947
Legislative Reform
Differential Effects of Complementary and Competing Variables in Primacy-Recency
Closed Systems of Behavior and Traditional Family Ideology
The objective was to obtain data relevant to the hyporhesis that systems of behavior at either the personality or the social structural level of analysis can influence the development of traditional or anti-democratic ideology in family relationships. At the level of personaliry, a high magnitude of rejection of opposing beliefs predisposes the closedminded individual to form an authoritarian outlook on life as expressed in a rigid dichotomizatio…
Personal Appearance as a Reflection of Social Attitudes: Stereotype or Reality
Does personal appearance or dress reflect fundamental social attitudes? Are radical and left-wing college students actually long-haired and bearded hippies, while conservative students are clean-shaven, short-haired, and conventionally clothed? Or, is this popular belief only a stereotype regarding the young, highly visible college population? To investigate this issue, 91 male and 102 female undergraduates at Boston University (M.,. = 19.5) were…
The Analysis of Communication Content: Developments in Scientific Theories and Computer Techniques
Hippie Values: An Analysis of the Underground Press
Some Determinants of Anti-Establishment Career Goals: An Empirical Analysis
Responses to a questionnaire by 125 students suggested that students using home-and-family as a reference group tended to be more establishment-oriented as were career-minded students, especially males
Social Constraint as a Determinant of Charitable Behavior
Social psychologists have long recognized the influence of social constraint or evaluarion apprehension, the presence of expectations of significant others in the actor's psychological environment, on attitudes and behavior (Warner & De Fleur, 1969). The present study was designed to investigate the effect of social constraint on behavior, conduct intended to benefit another person at a cost to the actor with little possibility of material reimbu…
Comparative Reference Group Behavior and Assimilation
T HE HISTORY OF assimilation in American society can be ideal-typically depicted as a process whereby minorities have removed themselves from their ancestral cultures to become uniformly incorporated into the melting pot of American life. Yet, in actual experience numerous minority members have not internalized the dominant culture nor established meaningful relationships with American majority groups.' Assimilation into American societyan uneven…
Some Comments on Gans's "Positive Functions of Poverty" and on "The Famine in American Mass Communications Research
Elementary Statistics in Social Research
Social Science Research: A Handbook for Students
The Functions of Prejudice
Gossip Columns: Media Small Talk
Journal Article Gossip Columns: Media Small Talk Get access Jack Levin, Jack Levin 1Jack Levin is Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University. Allan J. Kimmel is a graduate student in social psychology at Temple University. The authors are grateful to Barbara Myers, David O'Brien, and Sharon Harrell who participated in a test of intercoder reliability Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google …
Introductory Statistics with Applications
Embarrassment and Helping Behavior
Two experiments were devised to test Goffman's contention that embarrassment provokes face-restoring behavior on the part of spectators to the embarrassment as long as the embarrassed person does not violate the norms of interaction and does not regain composure. When a confederate requests students to volunteer for a study: students will be more likely to volunteer as subjects when the requester loses composure than when the requester docs not l…
Ageism: Prejudice and Discrimination Against the Elderly
An exploratory analysis of sex differences in gossip
Punk and Middle-Class Values: A Content Analysis
Mass Murder: America's Growing Menace
Gossip: The Inside Scoop
Discusses the nature of gossip, examines its psychological aspects, and looks at rumors, celebrity gossip, propaganda, gossip columnists, and political gossip
Are the times changing? An analysis of gender differences in sexual graffiti
Response to Scheuneman
Personal Communications
Earlier this year, a 14-year-old boy from Canton, Massachusetts was convicted for beating to death a fellow student. One defense psychiatrist at the trial, Dr. Bernard Yudowitz, argued that the documentary film Faces of Death had inspired Rod Matthews to commit this murder by swinging a wooden Louisville Slugger at Shaun Quillette at least three times. After watching the film, Matthews said the “he needed to see what it was like to kill someone,”…
Psychology (41 works) · Social Psychology (25 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Political science (20 works) · Criminology (19 works) · Social Psychology (16 works) · Law (13 works) · Medicine (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · History (9 works)