Social Sciences

Reports of widespread looting in New Orleans following the tragic flooding of the historic city sound less like actual criminal activity than desperation, according to a forensic psychologist at the University at Buffalo.

If you log on to eBay or murderauction.com these days, you will find a variety of "murderabilia" on sale for anywhere from $5 to $10,000. This might seem ghoulishly commercial, but it is just one manifestation of America's century-long obsession with serial killers. This compulsive preoccupation and its use in American culture is the subject of a new book by UB's David Schmid.

Seattle native Geoffrey Rhodes has been awarded a foreign scholarship from the J. William Fulbright Foundation to study filmmaking in Canada during the 2005-06 academic year.

Findings from a collaboration between scientists at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) and George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., have established the importance of distinguishing between feelings of shame and guilt when providing treatment for substance abuse and in developing substance-abuse prevention programs.

Heroin addicts trying to kick the habit often profoundly grieve their lost "relationship" with the needles they use to inject the drug, according to a new study by a University at Buffalo doctoral student.

The first comprehensive study of the location of unemployed men in metropolitan areas, has found that jobless black men occupy a uniquely disadvantageous "ecological niche" that severely limits their potential for future employment.

The University at Buffalo's Institute for Local Governance and Regional Growth has launched a new Web site for its "State of the Region" that will incorporate updates on the project's performance indicators and data as they become available.

Two University at Buffalo professors will offer an opportunity to interact with virtual worlds to those attending Buffalo's eclectic, independent, experimental and politically charged Infringement Festival being held through Aug. 7.

Kathryn A. Foster, Ph.D., who served as director of research for the University at Buffalo's Institute for Local Governance and Regional Growth for six years, has been named director of the institute effective Sept. 1.

Although scientists say there is no proven way to stop peer aggression and bullying behavior in young children, a psychologist at the University at Buffalo says that the consequences of the behavior are so serious for all parties involved that it should be stopped in its tracks by anyone who observes it.