The skull emblem of The Punisher—a vigilante superhero—has become a popular symbol among law enforcement personnel and has also appeared alongside Confederate flags in Charlottesville, VA, and at the January 6th, 2021 Capitol attack. A new article by Menaka Philips argues that closely examining images of the superhero, and of heroic violence in particular, may help provide some insight into the politics of violence in the United States. Understanding how and why certain groups associate with characters like the Punisher can also help scholars understand the role of race and gender in shaping popular conceptions about violence, and about how different groups are allowed to use it in the United States.

In the last decade or so, individuals such as Edward Snowden or Chelsea Manning have leaked classified documents to the public. These documents are now frequently drawn upon in published academic articles within political science journals. In his article in the American Political Science Review, Christopher Darnton asks how researchers, particularly those within political science’s subfield of international relations, should approach the “informational fall out” generated by such leaks and raises both the consequences and challenges that stem from the use of such sources.

Since the 1980s over 100 indiscriminate school shootings have taken the lives of dozens of adults and children across 40 states. Each school shooting sparked debates about gun control, with Democrats increasingly advocating for stricter gun laws and Republicans increasingly opposing them. Gun violence has certainly divided the country along partisan lines, but has it influenced the public’s political behavior? Political scientists Laura García-Montoya, Ana Arjona, and Matthew Lacombe investigate this question in their recent American Political Science Review study. In particular, they examine whether people who live in counties that experience school shootings change their voting behavior. García-Montoya, Arjona, and Lacombe find that gun violence in schools does not increase voter turnout, but it does shift the public’s vote in favor of Democrats during presidential elections.