Jack Levin, Ph.D is a specialist in the fields of criminology, prejudice and social psychology and a world renowned expert on serial killings, mass murders, and hate crimes. But to his students he’s just a colorful, entertaining educator.
Levin has one of the most popular classes at Northeastern University; it is full every semester. Levin said this is because he likes giving a performance and lecturing is his favorite part of teaching.
“Grading is kind of the dirty work of teaching,” Levin said.
Levin said he does not mind teaching for hundreds of students.
“People call it exhibitionist, or a show boat, and I might be,” Levin said with a chuckle.
At age 68, Levin has authored over 30 books, 150 articles, and is commonly featured as an expert on various network newscasts and programs such as the Oprah Winfrey Show. Levin is the go-to guy in the sociology field, but it was a long, twisty road before he got in front of a classroom. He is a revolutionary in his work, an eccentric in lifestyle, and a man of many talents.
“Before the early 1980’s, I had a much wider range of interests. In the early 1980s I discovered that no one had actually studied serial murder so I did a small study that became the basis for a book which was the first book written on serial murder. After that I really couldn’t get out of the business,” Levin said.
After serial murder, he started to study mass killings.
“Then I had another interest that predated research of killing -- bigotry and race relations. I did books on prejudice not only based on race and religion, but also age and gender. In the 1980s the term “hate crime” was coined, so in 1993 I wrote the first book on hate crimes,” Levin continued. Both books were written with other Northeastern University faculty members. Since the 1980s Levin’s focus was on violent crimes.
“In the class I teach, before the midterm we study violence, then hate crimes until the final. Or actually, maybe it’s hate after the final,” Levin laughed.
“I was a high school student under Jim Crow and saw the way blacks were victimized and that stuck with me for the rest of my life. I’m Jewish and I was seen as just a notch above blacks at that time. I think I could’ve gone either way with it. I’m sure there’s some people that would’ve backed away from the things I got involved in because they might have felt lucky to be higher in the hierarchy,” Levin said.
Originally from the deep South, Levin was born in New Orleans, raised in Houston.
“I thinks that’s where my interest in prejudice came from, being from there.”
Levin’s family moved around a lot. They moved to Massachusetts in February of his senior year of high school, and he graduated from Classical High School in Springfield. While his family continued to move around he stayed in Massachusetts because he loved Boston.
“Once I got here I didn’t want to move, and I didn’t!”
Levin has been in Boston since 1963.
Levin told the tale of how he went from Jack Levin, who struggled academically at first, to the Jack Levin, renowned professor and field expert.
“It’s really weird because I was certainly not an exceptional student in high school. I was too busy, I had a rock band. I did everything else but study a lot. My first year in college I majored in partying. I almost flunked out. Majoring in business which I despised… so I changed. It was kind of like the change alcoholics make when they join Alcoholics Anonymous… I hit rock bottom.”
He was lucky enough to meet a friend who he considered a brilliant student and he became Levin’s role model and mentor. Levin gave up his old, partying friends and dropped the business classes, then took up psychology and economics.
“I went from a 1.6 Grade Point Average to a 3.8 average. I became fanatical about studying. When I came to graduate school I was intense about studying. Eventually, I learned to balance studying and fun. Took me a few years but I did it,” Levin reminisced.
Levin got his master’s in communications research and wanted to do advertising research. After three days ss an intern at McCann Erickson, an advertising agency in New York City, Levin realized he hated every minute and knew communications was not for him. Although he did not know what he wanted to do in life he decided to stay in school.
“Wasn’t until I was a third year graduate student that I decided I wanted to teach at the college level. I walked in, gave a lecture and that’s when I knew that’s what I wanted to do the rest of my life. I kind of just felt into it... I loved it immediately.”
Detailing how he managed to build such a lofty reputation, Levin said one key factor was timing.
“First of all, I got in early,” Levin said. “I wrote the first book about serial murder and the first book about hate crimes… so I kind of was a pioneer and that helps,” Levin said. There are dozens of books about hate crimes now, but when Levin wrote the book it was the only one. “I think I kind of get some kind of satisfaction of being the first. I’m not saying I’m the best, but I certainly do like being the first.”
When sought for help in profiling and understanding a perpetrator, Levin makes his analyses on a statistical basis.
“I think of all the cases that I’ve known and studied and I have some kind of concept in my head about what some kind of crimes look like and analyze the next crime. When I analyzed the massacre of Fort Hood, I didn’t think of terrorism, I thought of workplace murder so I was able to give a profile based on the other cases because if tried to do it on terrorism I would have very little to go on.” In a recent USA Today, Levin wrote about how the shooter was a workplace avenger and not a terrorist.
On Levin’s website, JackLevinOnViolence.com, he speaks of having learned many significant lessons through his experiences.
“There are a lot of lessons I’ve learned about violent crimes. First, when people think of motives for violent murder they often think money, love, jealousy, revenge, profit, but they often ignore power and control and dominance, yet many of the killers that I’ve studied are motivated to gain a lot of publicity for themselves or to be big shots, be in charge, be important. Even when they kill their victims they try to maximize suffering and pain because it makes them feel so special.”
Levin said power is often a motive, not just the usual hypotheses.
When asked to reminisce on his toughest case ever, Levin went quiet for a moment.
“The one that bothered me the most was the case of Danny Rolling, a drifter from Louisiana who relocated to Gainesville, Florida where he brutally murdered five beautiful college students… He raped three of the five.” One of the murder victims was a man. He killed the man to get to his female roommate. There were three crime scenes.
“They were so hideous, grotesque, that I couldn’t sleep for weeks. And even now, if I allow myself to remember back to those crimes scenes, I won’t be able to sleep tonight. It was that horrible.”
Though Levin loves the work he does, he admits it is sometimes a hard job.
“People expect you to be a psychic and to predict based on a set of warning signs who will turn out to be a killer, and that’s simply impossible. There are simply too many people who have all the symptoms, but do not get the disease.” For example, Levin continued, school shooters like Virginia Tech or Columbine... you can give a list of warning signs, but those warning signs are shared by hundreds of thousands. One of the warning signs is they hated school, where about 60% of students hate going to class. That’s the biggest problem, Levin believes, using warning signs.
“It’s so much harder than people think.”
To truly understand the genius of Jack Levin, one must get to know the man behind the work. Family is very important to Levin, who has two sisters, a wife, and three children.
“One of my daughters went to NU, graduated with a psychology major and got a master’s in psychology at Arizona State University. She married an NU kid. Both daughters had a little boy within 5 weeks of one another so we have two, four year old grandsons, and one is pregnant with a boy now.” Levin also has a son. “All three of my children live within 20 minutes. When my family moved from state to state I didn’t like it. I like the feeling of stability you get with staying one place.”
When asked about his favorite childhood memory, Levin said excitedly, “That’s a hard one! Oh My God I think I do have one!… When I was in the 6th grade... there was a campaign between Eisenhower and Stevenson, the Democrat. I debated another student in the school auditorium. I was on Stevenson’s side, and of course Stevenson lost; he also lost among the students of the school,” Levin remembered happily. “It was a high point of my elementary career and inspired me to want to do more public speaking. Other than that, I had a Gilbert Chemistry set and along with a friend, I built a little bomb and blew up the garage.”
On the topic of childhood, Levin thinks back to what he wanted to be when he grew up. “Not a professor, not a criminologist. I think it might’ve been to be either a magician or a musician because those are the things that I did when I became a teenager.” Levin played a guitar and sang in his band and also did magic tricks for a kids camp. “I still do magic tricks in my class.”
Bringing the conversation back to more recent years, Levin recounted his most embarrassing moment. While conducting a study, he was interviewing a serial killer in Washington state and he tried to make him suffer by squeezing his hand as hard as he could. “The killer knew exactly what I was trying to do and he laughed at me… he made a fool of me,” Levin said.
In recounting his greatest achievements thus far, Levin stated that being a father was a tough endeavor and to the extent that he could pull it off is an achievement in itself.
“In my career, I think the thing that made me feel good about myself was when students from other schools called me in my office and said they loved one of my books and it made them want to study Sociology,” Levin said. “The fact that I actually inspired students not even in the Boston area to major in my field was a great accomplishment.”
Levin also said if he was to take the question more officially, he might say that his greatest accomplishment was when the state of Massachusetts recognized him as “Professor of the Year,” but he felt much more accomplished by those phone calls than by having that plaque on the wall.
Jack Levin is known around campus for his eccentric personality. His vast, colorful tie collection includes a nice purple number with a giant, black stuffed spider attached. When asked how he feels people view him, Levin responded that people understand him more than he understands himself. He shared a memory of being in an airport and being recognized by a student from his class in 1979. The former student saw Professor Levin and was so happy to see him. Levin said he loves when students from classes past will see him and recount some incident from class they never forgot, “like my hideous tie collection. I pride myself on being out of the ordinary.” Sometimes, Levin said, others do appreciate the fact that he’s concerned about keeping students coming back to class and not falling asleep.
“I love Northeastern!” Levin said when explaining why he chose to teach at Northeastern University. “I could have left years ago, but I wouldn’t do it. I love teaching here as much as ever. My students are better than ever… the campus went from ugly to beautiful… I can commute… I love Boston. What else would I get?”
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