Alex Sutherland
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criminologist.bsky.social
Alex Sutherland
@criminologist.bsky.social
Criminology, public policy, research and experiments
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
A 2500 year old letter from a soldier named Hananyahu, deciphered through super-modern multispectral imaging, begins with “If there is any wine, send” journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... #grunts #invinoveritas #dogsofwar #pluscachange
November 28, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
Persuasive letter on populism as a cognitive short-cut in the @financialtimes.com
November 29, 2025 at 7:13 AM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
This is incredible thank you @sesmith.lol here are some shrimp.
November 29, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
A pensioner with dementia gets a criminal conviction over an unpaid TV Licence

This one is pretty heartbreaking

The #SingleJusticeProcedure is broken

www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/p...
Pensioner with dementia convicted over unpaid TV Licence bill
Ailing pensioners, people with mental health struggles, grieving families and children have all been caught up in the Single Justice Procedure scandal
www.standard.co.uk
November 29, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread
November 29, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
Australia just recorded zero cervical cancer cases in women under 25 for the first time since records began in 1982. The amazing result of HPV vaccination.
November 28, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
#rstats
It is with profound sadness I heard that my long-time friend and colleague, John Fox passed away this week.
He was the author of {car}, {effects}, {Rcmdr}, ... and numerous influential books. I will miss him greatly.
www.john-fox.ca
John Fox: Books and Software
www.john-fox.ca
November 28, 2025 at 3:26 PM
This is excellent
A thread of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) that look like record covers... because that's EXACTLY what the world needs

1. Huey Lewis and the News: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
November 28, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
A thread of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) that look like record covers... because that's EXACTLY what the world needs

1. Huey Lewis and the News: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
November 28, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
Exciting news on @malengo.org, the NGO that helps East African students move to Europe for education: Our research team has given us a glimpse of their early findings!

Here is the full writeup, joint with @richardnerland.bsky.social:

forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/CpZYHk...

Thread follows!
November 27, 2025 at 2:28 AM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
A new paper shows how social media accelerates extremism by flooding users with emotionally charged, divisive content that algorithms naturally amplify, making extremist narratives far more visible, engaging, and persuasive than they would be otherwise.
November 24, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
Me drunk quoting Baudrillard to my uncle between helpings of stuffing:
Your universe is a photocopy of a photocopy of a…
on.ft.com/4ahkNKa
November 28, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
Here is a list of reasons why some of my hearings and trials this year have been delayed and kicked off into the long grass, stuck in our record court backlog. Serious allegations which will now be tried *years* after the event. 🧵👇
November 27, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
Brazil approves the first vaccine against dengue. The disease killed 6000 Brazilians in 2024.

This is a really remarkable achievement. I got dengue in 2015, and even with the mild case I had, it was a really miserable experience.
Anvisa aprova vacina brasileira contra dengue, a 1ª do mundo em dose única.

Após 12 anos de pesquisa e cinco de testes, imunizante foi produzido pelo Instituto Butantan. Em 2024, a doença matou quase 6 mil brasileiros.

Confira a reportagem completa: glo.bo/4rf9Hvg #JN
November 27, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
The stuff you find when you actually read the RCTs in a systematic review...

This paper is one of the foundational studies on vitamin D to prevent respiratory infections in kids. Cited 1,400 times as per Google Scholar.
November 26, 2025 at 9:15 PM
*Crime trends & crime researchers nodding vigorously in agreement*
this is one of the reasons not to do policy by poll or focus group
New net migration figures at 930am.

Net migration fell half a million to 344,000 in 2024 from 848k in 2023

56% of people think it went up last year
17% think stayed the same
14% think it went down

2025 figure to be lower again
16% expect that
38% think it will be up
31% about the same
November 27, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
this is one of the reasons not to do policy by poll or focus group
New net migration figures at 930am.

Net migration fell half a million to 344,000 in 2024 from 848k in 2023

56% of people think it went up last year
17% think stayed the same
14% think it went down

2025 figure to be lower again
16% expect that
38% think it will be up
31% about the same
November 27, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
Savoring each one of these like a rich chocolate praline
If you need something pleasant to talk about with family and friends over the holidays, might I suggest dropping these awesome music fun facts into the convo?

www.gojeffgo.com/music-fun-fa...
November 26, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
Last month, I found out I have hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, after decades of chronic pain and medical disinterest.

I've decided to write publicly about this, not just about hypermobility and its health impacts, but about how it feels when doctors don't care:

medium.com/p/4fea6398b8ba
Welcome to my body
After twenty years of pain and repeated medical dead ends, a stranger sent me a message on Instagram. It led to a diagnosis all the doctors…
medium.com
November 26, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
“The family’s lawyer, Jay Edelson, called OpenAI’s response “disturbing” and said the company “tries to find fault in everyone else, including, amazingly, by arguing that Adam himself violated its terms and conditions by engaging with ChatGPT in the very way it was programmed to act”
November 26, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
My new book, The Division of Rationalized Labor, is now shipping! A brief summary of the argument to follow…
November 26, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
Very honored by this; thank you Andrew! Wish I could have made it to the conference this year to celebrate! Also, important to note this research was made possible with funding from the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research for the PHDCN's fifth wave.
I also want to congratulate @clanfear.bsky.social, David Kirk and Rob Sampson, whose paper “Dual pathways of concealed gun carrying and use from adolescence to adulthood over a 25-year era of change” was one of two selected for honorable mention by the 2025 Greenwald Award Independent Review Panel!
November 26, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
Congratulations to @rsbeidas.bsky.social and her team for winning the $5000 Greenwald Award for research on firearm violence prevention for their paper, "Implementation of a Secure Firearm Storage Program in Pediatric Primary Care: A Cluster Randomized Trial"! static1.squarespace.com/static/63924...
static1.squarespace.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:02 PM
"Is [ANOTHER] of the most famous social psychology studies of all time a lie?"

Fixed it.
NEW: When Propecy Fails is one of the most famous social psychology books of all time, a look at a small group of UFO believers when the “spacemen” failed to land. I wrote about a new study from an independent researcher who says the book is not what it seems. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
It’s one of the most influential social psychology studies ever. Was it all a lie?
A classic book on UFO believers and their "cognitive dissonance" after aliens failed to land is called into question.
www.motherjones.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Alex Sutherland
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
November 25, 2025 at 4:15 PM