The United States and Brazil have much in common when it comes to the coronavirus. Both are among the world’s hardest-hit countries, where hundreds die daily. Their like-minded presidents, Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, have both been widely criticized for their poor handling of the pandemic. And in both countries the virus is disproportionately affecting...
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Overcoming Crime in Costa Rica
ta Rica is known around the world over for its rainforests, coffee and beaches. But despite Costa Rica’s reputation for safety and its recent economic growth, criminals use its strategic location for smuggling activities. A team of U.S. forensic science experts, led by two West Virginia University professors from Costa Rica, aim to fix that. A new...
Two-Thirds of African Americans Know Someone Mistreated by Police, and 22% Report Mistreatment in Past Year
Sixty-eight percent of African Americans say they know someone who has been unfairly stopped, searched, questioned, physically threatened or abused by the police, and 43 percent say they personally have had this experience—with 22 percent saying the mistreatment occurred within the past year alone, according to survey results from Tufts University’s Research Group on Equity...
Ankle Monitors Could Stigmatize Wearers
Electronic ankle monitors – increasingly used as an alternative to incarceration – are bulky and difficult to conceal, displaying their wearers’ potential involvement with the justice system for all to see, according to a new article by a Cornell researcher. Though these monitors have been widely used since the 1980s, their design has not significantly...
Unfounded Fear Helps Fuel Police Violence
As Congress and local governments across the United States consider police reform, one important question is why police use excessive force, even after scores of protests across the country against police brutality following the death of George Floyd and other people of color. A common answer is that officers are afraid of being injured or...
Jurors Respond Negatively to Police Overreactions to Black Americans
As law enforcement’s use of body-worn cameras and dash cams has increased in the U.S., the growth of attorneys’ introduction of video evidence in court, including jury trials, has followed. Psychology and criminal justice researchers are now trying to determine the various influences of this footage, such as its impact on trial outcomes. One such...
Twitter Posts Reveal Polarization in Congress on COVID-19
The rapid politicization of the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen in messages members of the U.S. Congress sent about the issue on the social media site Twitter, a new analysis found. Using artificial intelligence and resources from the Ohio Supercomputer Center, researchers conducted an analysis that covered all 30,887 tweets that members sent about COVID-19 from...
Online Trackers Follow Health Site Visitors, Use Sensitive Information
Internet trackers are more likely to follow people who visit popular health sites, such as WebMD.com and mayoclinic.org, to other types of sites, a Cornell Tech study has found – suggesting that advertisers might be more likely to target people based on sensitive health information than previously understood. The study examined how the order in...
Expanding Access to Cyber Research Tools
Faculty and students at Purdue University now have access to cybersecurity research software developed at Sandia National Laboratories. This marks the first time Sandia has collaborated with an academic community to make its cyber software widely available. Sandia has previously invited academic collaborators to use cyber research software at the labs or by connecting to...
At Height of COVID-19, Nurses and Doctors Reported High Levels of Distress
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, health care workers on the front lines had high levels of acute stress, anxiety, and depression, a study by researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian has found. Levels of stress, anxiety and depression were particularly high among those with the greatest...