Jack Levin is the Brudnick Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology at Northeastern University, where he co-directs its Center on Violence and Conflict. He has authored or co-authored more than thirty books, most recently Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder, The Will to Kill: Making Sense of Senseless Murder, and The Violence of Hate: Understanding Harmful Forms of Bias and Bigotry. Dr. Levin has also published more than 250 articles and columns in professional journals, books, magazines, and newspapers, such as the New York Times, London Sunday Times, Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and USA Today. Dr. Levin was honored by the Massachusetts Council for Advancement and Support of Education as its “Professor of the Year” and by the American Sociological Association for his contributions to the public understanding of sociology. He has also received awards from the Eastern Sociological Society, New England Sociological Association, Association of Clinical and Applied Sociology, Society for the Study of Social Problems, and Who’s Who. Moreover, he has spoken to a wide variety of community, academic, and professional groups, including the White House Conference on Hate Crimes, the Department of Justice, OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
Julie B. Wiest is an associate professor of sociology at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches courses on culture, social psychology, and digital research. Her research primarily focuses on the sociocultural context of violence, mass media studies, and the relationship between new media technologies and social change. Dr. Wiest authored Creating Cultural Monsters: Serial Murder in America, as well as scholarly articles examining the influence of gender roles in court case outcomes of filicidal parents; media coverage of serial murder, mass murder, and active shooters; and public interest in serial and mass murder. Dr. Wiest chairs the Publications Committee and serves on the Executive Council of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, and she is an active member of the American Sociological Association’s Section on Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology.