Social distancing and stay-at-home measures provided scientists with a natural experiment to study social phenomena that hinge precisely on human mobility and contact — including criminal activity. A study by Center for the U.S. and Mexico experts and co-authors explores the relationship between COVID-19 and criminal activity in Mexico.

Abstract

This article assesses Mexico’s organized crime alliance and subgroup network structures. Through social network…

Gun shows are public gatherings where licensed gun dealers and private gun owners use formal and informal venues to exchange information or sell and buy firearms, accessories, and ammunition. A major challenge is that gun shows, unlike established business locations, can be considered gray zones where regulatory loopholes facilitate the movement of legal firearms to illegal domains both domestically and internationally.

The author proposes a model that explains how stressors such as constant uncertainty and legal vulnerability can affect the mental health of undocumented immigrants — and how, paradoxically, they can also make migrant communities more resilient. Learn more in Current Opinion in Psychology.

Hospital at Home programs offer an alternative care model for acutely ill patients to receive intensive at-home treatment. With better policy and operations, can this model work at scale in the United States beyond the pandemic?

The authors sought to develop and test a tool that accurately predicts the unique financial burden to individual patients undergoing treatment for breast cancer. JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics, an American Society of Clinical Oncology Journal

Largely informal networks of binational cooperation between government actors are effective, but depend on the determination and ability of individuals to create and maintain them. As a result, this form of binational cooperation is vulnerable to variables in personality and changing political winds.

By tracking the math scores and earnings of adults who were in-utero during Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, the authors were able to identify some of the consequences of prenatal malnutrition and stress.

Data from a survey of 892 scientists in Taiwan demonstrate that while scientists perceive religion and scientific research as generally separate in the abstract, in practice, they regard the boundary between religion and their workplace as somewhat permeable.

The authors examine whether Italian scientists have experienced any religious shifts and how they went through these shifts, addressing personal secularization theories by analyzing whether and how scientists reconstruct their religious identities by utilizing science. Published by Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences