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Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law, and Public Policy

James Alan Fox has published 18 books, dozens of journal and magazine articles, and hundreds of freelance columns in newspapers around the country, primarily in the areas of mass murder, serial murder youth crime, school and campus violence, workplace violence, and capital punishment. As a member of its Board of Contributors, his column appears regularly in USA TODAY. In addition, he was the founding editor of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology.

Fox is one of the principals in maintaining the Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killing Database. He has led or worked on criminal investigations surrounding serial and mass murder cases, served as an expert witness in over a dozen of civil cases related to multiple homicide, and was a visiting fellow with the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Fox often gives keynote talks on campuses and to professional or community groups, as well as testimony before Congress. He has presented to various leaders here and abroad, including President Clinton, Attorneys General Reno and Holder, and Princess Anne of Great Britain.

Fox was honored in 2007 by the Massachusetts Committee against the Death Penalty with the Hugo Adam Bedau Award for excellence in capital punishment scholarship and by Northeastern University with the 2008 Klein Lectureship. Finally, he is ranked #8 in the list of most influential people in criminal justice over the past 50 years by academicinfluence.com.

View CV
  • The Lipman Family Chair in Criminology, Law and Public Policy, Northeastern University, 1999 – present
  • Cole Professorship, Wheaton College, Norton, MA, 1999-2000
  • John T. Holden Memorial Fund ecture, University of New Hampshire, 2007
  • Hugo Adam Bedau Award for excellence in death penalty scholarship, Massachusetts Citizens against the Death Penalty, 2007
  • Klein Memorial Lectureship, Northeastern University, 2008
  • Distinguished Lecture Series, University of Central Florida, 2014

 

 

Courses

Course catalog
  • Offers a foundation in different statistical techniques that may be utilized to answer research questions in the social sciences. Examines a range of computational social science techniques across data platforms to address crime and criminal justice system problems. Emphasizes existing databases that may inform questions about crime and criminal justice. Also introduces students to different ways to display or visualize quantitative data. Offers students an opportunity to learn how to produce and consume quantitative information.

  • Studies the use of social science quantitative techniques, emphasizing applications of value to public-sector analysts and scholars alike. Introduces probability and statistical analysis. Topics include measures of central tendency and dispersion, probability and probability distributions, sampling distributions and hypothesis testing, bivariate correlation, regression, and forecasting. Examines how to generate and interpret statistical analyses.

James Alan’s Colleagues

Headshot of Donna Bishop

Donna Bishop

Professor Emeritus of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Ekaterina Botchkovar

Ekaterina Botchkovar

Undergraduate Program Director; Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Carlos Cuevas

Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Co-Director of the Violence and Justice Research Lab

Kevin Drakulich

Associate Director and Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice; PhD Program Director; Director of Race and Justice Lab

Amy Farrell

Director and Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Co-Director of the Violence and Justice Research Lab

Natasha Frost

Associate Dean of Research; Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Director of Corrections and Reentry Lab

Headshot of Jack Greene

Jack Greene

Professor Emeritus of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Headshot of Ineke Marshall

Ineke Marshall

Professor of Sociology and Criminology and Criminal Justice

Headshot of Ramiro Martinez

Ramiro Martinez

Professor of Sociology and Criminology and Criminal Justice

Headshot of Nikos Passas

Nikos Passas

Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Co-Director, Institute for Security and Public Policy

Simon Singer

Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Headshot of Jacob Stowell

Jacob Stowell

Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Headshot of Brandon Welsh

Brandon Welsh

Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Director, Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study, Co-Director, Crime Prevention Lab

Gregory Zimmerman

Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Master's Program Director; Director of Big Data and Quantitative Methods Initiatives

Krista Larsen

Assistant Teaching Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice