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Brenden Beck

@brendenbeck.net
1.1K followers 480 following 211 posts

Sociologist at the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice studying policing, city budgets, suburbs, and housing. brenden.beck@rutgers.edu

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Reposted by Brenden Beck
weeder @weeder.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
God, grant me the courage to change the things I can and incredible new powers to change the things I can't.
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 25/09/2026
The TV list is good! Only omission is Taskmaster.
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pmamtraveller.bsky.social @pmamtraveller.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Yemeni Anthropomorphic Stele (3rd–1st Century BCE)
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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I spent the morning reading John Levi Martin's absolutely brutal takedown of the Vanderbilt report's assessment of politicization in sociology. I recommend it and hope it gets as much attention as the initial (crap) Vanderbilt report. A Reader’s Guide to the Rubin Report osf.io/preprints/so...
osf.io
OSF
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 21/09/2026
I heard Malcolm Gladwell on the radio pushing to hire more cops. Where will recruits will come from? Depts struggle to keep the officers they have. ICE is lowering their standards to get just 10,000 new hires. And Gladwell wants to find *500,000* more officers. This will not be easy.
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
the degree of both autonomy and corruption inside tiny police departments in the U.S. is ridiculous.
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David Schleicher @profschleich.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
❗New Article❗ The Great American Property Tax Freakout! Since 2024, many states have radically reshaped their property tax systems.The changes are an example of a national trend of carving out influential groups from taxation, in this case a majority group: homeowners papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
The Great American Property Tax Freak Out
There has been a lot of news over the last two years, so it is understandable that neither the mass media nor the legal academy has focused on what is happening
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ceej @ceej.online · 12/06/2024
My wife, a prodigious sleep-talker, failed to disclose her affliction when we started dating, which led to the fright of my life the night she sat bolt upright in bed and in a low flat monotone loudly declared that “THIRTEEN BABIES REMAIN UNFATHERED.”
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 02/09/2026
On the Daily, I heard the founder of Flock say he started the company after a spate of gun thefts from parked cars in his neighborhood. I don't know if that's the real origin story, but, if so, how is blanketing a city with cameras easier than telling people to take their guns inside?!
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oh no @ili.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
en esta economía??????
nyt cooking melissa clark seis leches cake january 21, 2020
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 18/08/2026
I finally read the WSJ's article about "liquidating sociology" and there are a couple good points. We probably could stand to talk about social improvement and stability more, but it also contains some head-scratchers like...
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 18/08/2026
I listened to @doctorow.pluralistic.net on On the Media predicting that the AI bubble will burst and cause a recession. Maybe! But it reminded me of the old joke "Marxists have predicted five out of the last two economic crises."
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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Yet another city seeing homicides plummet to historic lows. And the article is long, in-depth, and posted on the front page of the website. It's a case of significant crime decline getting prominent treatment (with a mention before the first ad of the national decline). It's genuinely good to see!
nytimes.com
Murder Drops to Historic Lows in Baltimore
After decades of notoriously high murder totals, Baltimore and the people whose work entails dealing with the city’s most violent crimes are adjusting to a new reality.
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jon ben-menachem @jbenmenachem.com · 17/08/2026
Since the speed camera discourse has invoked our recent study, I figured I’d also flag how we threaded the needle on this issue—we can have traffic enforcement without allowing cops to use the cameras to stalk their exes. www.vitalcitynyc.org/nyc-speed-ca...
Critics have raised valid concerns about the surveillance implications of expanding automated enforcement. Indeed, in many jurisdictions, law enforcement's use of automated license plate readers has intensified domestic violence and
cyberstalking by police. Additionally, the ever-expanding surveillance capabilities of federal immigration enforcement raise civil liberties concerns, particularly as other New York law enforcement databases feed into
ICE systems.These concerns can be remedied by requiring frequent deletion of traffic safety data, banning the application of facial recognition technology and implementing firm firewalls between civil traffic
enforcement and local or federal law
enforcement databases. Such efforts could be given real teeth through civilian oversight mechanisms.
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 17/08/2026
Researchers are studying gentrification less recently, partly because they/we turned their attention back to more wide-spread forms of spatial inequality like segregation and suburbanization. In a new article, Hwang and colleagues do an *amazing* job of synthesizing the three phenomena. They find...
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William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
The cure to male loneliness crisis sending young men on journeys. You used to be bundled off on an expedition with a 20% chance of killing you and a 20% of making you see or do horrors. You’d come back and write a cryptic journal and drink heavily. Can’t do this anymore, because of woke.
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 13/08/2026
I'm struck that AOC & Mamdani's statements disavowing "woke 1" don't mention police violence. Deaths from police encounters are as frequent today as they were in 2020, but the issues has lost a lot of salience. AOC et al. could remind the public of the context.
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 10/08/2026
There's understandable worry that using speed cameras will disproportionately target Black & Latino neighborhoods, but as this new research makes clear, there's also disproportionately in the traffic collisions that speed cameras are meant to reduce.
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 09/08/2026
Molly Young is so good mollyyoung.substack.com/p/a-velcro-b...
The best way to get good at attention as an adult, of course, is to increase your boredom threshold to the point where paying attention becomes its own riveting end. This is one reason nuns and monks live in seclusion and fill their days with tedious chores. For a non-nun living in a world of nonstop provocation and arousal, the practice of boredom is grueling and lonesome and probably futile. (But maybe it’s also that way for nuns. I haven’t talked to one in a while.)...
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Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 06/08/2026
That’s enough to fund 11 years worth of $2000 monthly housing vouchers for all 5300 individuals facing homelessness in DC right now.
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Norm Charlatan @normcharlatan.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Matt Damon at the end of The Odyssey [getting in his boat]: I Odyssey about a girl.
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 28/07/2026
Homicides of white and wealthy people get more press attention. In this excellent new study, @jbenmenachem.com interviews journalists to understand why. Short version: journalists often recognize the inequity but feel constrained by resources and demands for novelty. doi.org/10.1111/1745...
doi.org
Which deaths count? Debating homicide coverage amidst newsroom scarcity
Past research documents disparities in which homicides receive news coverage and how victims are portrayed, yet the organizational processes producing these patterns remain understudied. This paper a...
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WeRateDogs @weratedogs.com · 22/07/2026
This is Chubbers. He is catching a wave. But more importantly, catching a vibe. 14/10 (IG: nataliepaigebentley)
a yellow lab smiles at us from the middle of a blue-green wave in the ocean. his front paws are mid-paddle. soft seafoam has formed on the beach. the lab is glad you're watching. he wanted you to see him having the time of his life.
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Tony Cheng @tonykcheng.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
New w/ @shelleyliu.bsky.social in Science Advances We show that a police trust-building proj: - raised police trust among non-Black respondents - lowered it among Black respondents - cut non-Black support for BLM + racial equity policies doi.org/10.1126/scia... Funding: @RussellSageFdn
Screenshot of a Science Advances article page titled 'When trust building looks like surveillance: Public polarization toward Chicago policing' by Tony Cheng and Shelley Liu, published July 17, 2026 in Vol 12, Issue 29. The abstract states: researchers used a preregistered survey experiment in Chicago to examine responses to the police department's 'Sentiment Dashboard.' Results show the dashboard increased trust in police among non-Black respondents but reduced trust among Black respondents, especially when framed as monitoring. Among non-Black respondents, dashboard exposure also reduced support for the Black Lives Matter movement and racial equity policies unrelated to policing, such as diverse hiring and climate justice. The findings suggest state legitimacy initiatives may widen racial divides and weaken coalitions for structural reform.
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
The US built the greatest talent magnet ever, attracting the smart, skilled, and striving. They’d come to study, then stay and build things here, or leave with positive impressions and fruitful connections. Helped make the US wealthy and powerful. Then America chose to throw it away. And for what?
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 15/07/2026
Yesterday a man was fatally struck by a tractor trailer while fleeing ICE agents. This tragedy, in Florida, highlights a change in my thinking (and maybe scholarship and journalism writ large) around fatal law enforcement interactions. Thread. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/u...
nytimes.com
Man in Florida Fatally Hit by Truck While Fleeing ICE, Official Says
Details were unclear on Tuesday about what exactly happened at a gas station in St. Augustine before the man was killed.
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 09/07/2026
As Zoom meetings, sprawl, and working from home have proliferated, even this city booster has been surprised by how sticky urban centers have proven. The most profit-driven firms recognize the importance of dense meat space. www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/07/09/b...
thecityreporter.nyc
Big Business is Leasing Record Office Space in Mamdani’s New York
Some of the biggest names in banking, law and artificial intelligence are expanding their footprints in Manhattan and Brooklyn office towers.
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Razzball @razzball.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
my kind of Jubilee, the Japanese national team vs. 100 kids
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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Rural areas increasingly dominate the grim homicide rate "leaderboard." Now, that's a tad unfair--they surely dominate safest places too, bc places w small pops have much more volatility (1 extra homicide can swing a rural rate, not NYC's). But still: urban/rural homicides rates are converging.
Half of U.S. counties with highest rates of gun homicides are
rural
Top 50 U.S. counties with the highest annualized firearm homicide rates, 2021-2024
Use pagination to browse, click column headings to sort, or search within the table.
Search in table
Page 1 of 4
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Annualized Gun Homicide
County
Urbanization
Rate
1
St. Louis city, MO
large metro
77.94
2
Washington County, MS
rural
68.60
3
Holmes County, MS
rural
67.48
4
Hinds County, MS
small metro
67.22
5
Leflore County, MS
rural
66.90
6
Orleans Parish, LA
large metro
55.69
7
Coahoma County, MS
rural
53.47
8
Dallas County, AL
rural
49.23
9
Petersburg city, VA
large metro
47.71
10
Baltimore city, MD
large metro
46.81
11
Allendale County, SC
rural
46.35
12
Tunica County, MS
large metro
43.68
13
Wilkinson County, MS
rural
41.56
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jon ben-menachem @jbenmenachem.com · 22/06/2026
"If it bleeds, it leads"—many people assume crime news is just about chasing clicks. After interviewing 58 crime journalists across 40 newsrooms, I found something more complicated. My first dissertation paper is live at @sociologicalsci.bsky.social 🧵 sociologicalscience.com/articles-v13...
Clickbait Crime News? Metrics and Professional
Authority in Local Newsrooms
Jonathan Ben-Menachem
Columbia University
Abstract: Existing research on newsroom metrics documents how journalists construct compatibility
between discordant professional and commercial evaluation frameworks. This study examines the
underexplored case where metrics validate existing practices. Drawing on interviews with 58 crime
journalists in 40 U.S. newsrooms, I find that reporters whose work consistently performed well on
audience metrics often defended professional evaluation criteria. Editors facilitated this defense

through brokerage, absorbing commercial logics so reporters could experience their work as profes-
sionally guided. Market position structured interpretive responses: reporters could avoid metrics,

override them, selectively appropriate them, or integrate them into practice. The transition from
pageview to subscription regimes reshaped whether concordance was experienced as contaminating
or legitimating. Even under concordance, journalists defended professional evaluation criteria.
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 16/06/2026
My great grandfather was a “bridge policeman“ and a tobacco grader (they don’t make jobs like they used to). His son, my grandfather, went to law school on the G.I. Bill and became a Kentucky state supreme court justice. That social mobility level-up helped my mom and then me in immeasurable ways.
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Matthew Clair @mathuclair.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Excited to see my review article on “the cultural study of law and social crisis” is now online—and open access www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
annualreviews.org
The Cultural Study of Law and Social Crisis
This article reviews cultural sociological approaches to law and considers how they may sharpen analysis of social crises. As the United States faces myriad law-related crises, such as rising authorit...
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Alex Elizabeth Byrne McMillan @undeniablyalex.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
YOU’RE LISTENING TO SISYPHUS FM, THE HOME OF NON-STOP ROCK
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𝔸𝕞𝕓𝕖𝕣 𝔻𝕒𝕨𝕟 @amberdawn1116.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Getting into the shower too quickly and having to wait for the water to warm up…
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Adam Roberts @adamroberts.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Surely they've suffered enough?
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 10/05/2026
Cheaper and more effective?! No thanks. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/10/o...
An excerpt from the linked article that says: "Women’s court also saves the state significant money. The cost to incarcerate someone in Hawaii is $253 per day. Conservatively, that’s more than $2.7 million a year for just 30 women. Women’s court, to be clear, doesn’t function just on the basis of its annual $705,000 budget; it has multiple community partners, each of which has its own costs, particularly for drug treatment and housing. But there are savings downstream in keeping families together, and in offering stability to children so they don’t wind up in foster care or as defendants in court themselves someday. As a potential model, Mohala Wahine is almost certainly more effective than a hyper-retributive system in which we take broken people, break them further and then send them right back to where they were broken in the first place."
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e.w. niedermeyer @niedermeyer.online · 07/05/2026
wandering the Sonora desert in a carefree fashion like
A Saguaro cactus that looks as if it has two eyes and is striding through the landscape in a jaunty manner, perhaps whistling a tune
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 05/05/2026
This Rachel Aviv story was a Pulitzer finalist today and it's incredible. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
Mary Had Schizophrenia—Then Suddenly She Didn’t
Some psychiatric patients may actually have treatable autoimmune conditions. But what happens to the newly sane?
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Jon Bois @jonbois.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
i’m deleting my repost of a fake account impersonating an nba reporter. i didn’t look close enough and i was fooled, and that’s on me. the basketball court does NOT fold up like a backgammon board after the game and the players do NOT sleep in it until the next game
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Jeff Asher @jeffasher.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Philadelphia reported 39 murders through April which is the fewest reported there since 1963. New York City reported 75 murders through April 26 which is on track to be the fewest murders through April ever reported (previous low was 86 in 2018).
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David Harvey @davidharvey.org · 24/04/2026
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.” ― Anatole France
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Rusty Foster @rusty.todayintabs.com · 26/04/2026
The entire budget request for the National Park Service in 2026 was about $2 billion. When any federal lawmaker ever tells you there isn’t enough money for something, they’re lying to you.
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ceej @ceej.online · 24/04/2026
selecting the window seat and immediately closing the shade to protect my fellow passengers from witnessing the blasphemy of human flight
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 22/04/2026
Come work with me! My department is hiring an assistant research professor to lead the newly formed CLEAR Institute. The job is a 1-1 teaching load with expectations for research and external funding development. HMU with any questions! jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/273...
jobs.rutgers.edu
Assistant Research Professor
The School of Criminal Justice (SCJ) at Rutgers University–Newark invites applications for a full-time, 12-month, non-tenure track Professional Practice Professor appointment at the Assistant or Assoc...
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American Sociological Association @asanews.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
A new study coauthored by ASA member Theresa Rocha Beardall @trochabeardall.bsky.social focuses on where police killings of Native people are taking place and finds that mortality risk is multiple times higher in and around reservations. @seattletimes-rss.bsky.social
bit.ly
Police disproportionately kill Native people on or near reservations, UW study finds
Roughly 3 in 4 Indigenous people in the United States killed by law enforcement were on or near reservations, a new University of Washington study found.
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Kiara Wyndham @kiarawyndham.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
So excited to share that Diversityland: Hiding Racial Inequality in an American Suburb is available for pre-order! Use code UCPSAVE30 to save 30%. www.ucpress.edu/books/divers... @ucpress.bsky.social
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stu @rinbcage.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
This isn't the right time for anachronisms
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Brenden Beck @brendenbeck.net · 15/04/2026
It's tax day, so it's time for my annual reminder that tax evasion costs us 63 times more than property theft ($1 trillion vs $16 billion).
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John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
The red line shows homicides between 2018 and 2025. The blue line, the number of local government employees. They are mirror images. The blue line trends w/ARPA, a $350B investment in local government. The red line trends down as 1 million teachers, counselors, and clinicians enter the workforce.
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sam @samthielman.com · 10/04/2026
how much money does the marine corps lose
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