Related:They found that lower levels of intelligence are associated with greater levels of offending, that the IQ-offending association is mostly linear, with some curvilinear aspects at highest and lowest levels, and that the pattern is consistent across multiple measures of intelligence and offending. In some ways this is exactly as predicted and already observed, since the available literature shows that individuals with lower IQ are more likely to engage in criminal behaviour. Criminal offending was measured with nine different indicators from official records and intelligence was measured using three subscales (verbal, mathematical, and spatial reasoning) as well as a composite measure. The results show consistent evidence of mostly linear patterns, with some indication of curvilinear associations at the very lowest and the very highest ranges of intellectual ability. [. . .]
Note that violent crime is an order of magnitude higher in the bottom 20% of the population by ability than the top 20% of population by ability. The pattern is generally a linear one. The subscales of intelligence show the same pattern, though perhaps the spatial scores show a slightly less pronounced differential effect.
So, why do dull minds carry out criminal acts? The main effect is driven by general intelligence, so that raises a number of possibilities, in that highly g-loaded factors such as deficits in executive functions, including inhibition, processing speed, and attention are potentially linked to criminal behaviour. People with higher levels of intelligence are more dependable ( Deary et al., 2008b) and conscientious ( Luciano, Wainwright, Wright, & Martin, 2006), suggesting that they are more likely to think about the moral consequences of their actions compared to individuals with lower levels of intelligence. People with lower intelligence have been found to act more impulsively ( de Wit et al., 2007 and Funder and Block, 1989). People with lower levels of impulse control and related constructs, such as low self-control, have also been found to be significantly more likely to engage in various forms of criminal and antisocial behavior ( Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990,Moffitt et al., 2011 and Pratt and Cullen, 2000). While only preliminary, current research suggests that lower levels of intelligence reduces the ability to weigh the costs and benefits of individual action, resulting in a greater propensity to make impulsive decisions, which in some cases involve illegal behaviour.
Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts
Criminality and intelligence in Finland
James Thompson summarizes a recent paper ("Intelligence and criminal behavior in a total birth cohort: An examination of functional form, dimensions of intelligence, and the nature of offending"):
Opportunity costs, intelligence, and criminality
Cognitive ability and the division of labor in urban ghettos: Evidence from gang activity in U.S. data
Hernstein and Murray (1994) famously argued that the division of labor in modern society is determined by individual differences in cognitive ability. This paper shows that differences in cognitive ability can also determine the division of labor in poor urban areas. We estimate the effect of IQ on time-to-first gang participation with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) and Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). Results from both the NLSY97 and PHDCN indicate that low-IQ is a robust predictor of gang participation. There are two plausible explanations of this main finding: (1) low-IQ individuals may have comparative advantage in violence as their opportunity costs of engaging in legal activities are low and (2) gangs may prefer low-IQ individuals as a way to reduce agency costs. We find strong evidence in support of the hypothesis that persons with lower IQs have comparative advantage in criminal activity in the PHDCN dataset. HighlightsRelated posts:► This paper shows that cognitive ability can determine the division of labor in poor urban areas. ► We estimate the effect of IQ on time-to-first gang participation with data from U.S. data. ► Results indicate low-IQ is a robust predictor of gang participation. ► A person's relative IQ, with respect to one's neighborhood peers, determines gang participation.
Intelligence and corruption
Intelligence and bribing behavior in a one-shot game
We investigate the relationship between intelligence and bribing behavior in a simple one-shot game of corruption. We find a robust relationship between intelligence and the probability of bribing in which a higher intelligence quotient (IQ) leads to a lower probability of bribing in the game. This result holds after controlling for other determinants such as gender, attitude toward corruption, and perceptions of corruption. By revealing the gender of the matched player, we also show that gender perceptions of corruption are strong determinants of bribery.Intelligence and corruption
This study finds that countries with high-IQ populations enjoy less corruption. I propose that this is because intelligent people have longer time horizons.(Via UDADISI.)
IQ, SES, and criminality
(Via Chuck.) Elaboration on the association between IQ and parental SES with subsequent crime. Personality and Individual Differences 50 (2011) 1233–1237. (pdf)
The current study, based on the nationally representative NLSY data, follows incarceration over a 24-year period. This represents the longest prospective examination of the NLSY crime data to date, since previous analyses have been shorter and is not prospective (Herrnstein & Murray, 1994). With the aim of providing greater confidence in the results, unlike prior analyses the current study uses three major criminological outcomes (onset, incidence and frequency of incarceration), and not one (incidence of incarceration). Based on theoretically reformulated associations between the study variables, the results show that low IQ, low parental SES and their interaction modestly predict the incidence of, frequency of and time to incarceration.Related posts:Theoretically, a low IQ may make coping and decision-making difficult and increase the likelihood of crime. Taken in isolation the association between low IQ and increased risk of crime in the current results may be taken as evidence that is consistent with the Bell Curve (Herrnstein & Murray, 1994). Concurrently, however, the present results also indicate that a low parental SES increases the risk of crime, potentially through an inadequate familial environment (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002). These family characteristics may include little emphasis on social attainment. Thus, the current findings indicate that the family environment may provide a route to influence the association between IQ and crime. This possibility is not considered in the Bell Curve view on crime that emphasizes neighborhood SES (Herrnstein & Murray, 1994), and is consistent with opponents to the Bell Curve (Fischer et al., 1996).
Collectively, however, the effects of IQ and parental SES on crime are modestly amplified, as captured by the interaction reflecting unfavorable conditions (i.e., particularly if both IQ and parental SES are low). A possible explanation of this interaction is that a disadvantaged home environment does not encourage social attainment and a low IQ makes coping and decision-making difficult. Taken together this increases the likelihood of crime. Thus these findings support an interactional perspective of crime. Their interpretation is consistent with the usually competing theoretical notions that contrast low SES (Fischer et al., 1996) or low IQ (Herrnstein & Murray, 1994) as factors that increase the likelihood of crime. [. . .]
This study does not separate genetic–environmental influences, unlike past research (e.g., Koenen, Caspi, Moffitt, Rijsdijk, & Taylor, 2006). SES may not purely be an environmental factor that is unrelated to IQ. Parents may give children both genes for IQ and SES (i.e., passive gene–environment associations), and a parent’s SES is partly based on their IQ as a result of life-long active gene–environment interactions. Accordingly, IQ and SES may be moderately correlated due to common genetic influences. Also, as the participants in this study mature, they become increasingly free to create their own environments, partly due to both IQ and SES. The current study, however, affords no assessment of genetics, or upward or downward social mobility, thereby highlighting key directions for future research.
Greater policing required to enforce cooperation in "diverse" societies
A Test of Evolutionary Policing Theory with Data from Human Societies (PLoS ONE):
In social groups where relatedness among interacting individuals is low, cooperation can often only be maintained through mechanisms that repress competition among group members. Repression-of-competition mechanisms, such as policing and punishment, seem to be of particular importance in human societies, where cooperative interactions often occur among unrelated individuals. In line with this view, economic games have shown that the ability to punish defectors enforces cooperation among humans. Here, I examine a real-world example of a repression-of-competition system, the police institutions common to modern human societies. Specifically, I test evolutionary policing theory by comparing data on policing effort, per capita crime rate, and similarity (used as a proxy for genetic relatedness) among citizens across the 26 cantons of Switzerland. This comparison revealed full support for all three predictions of evolutionary policing theory. First, when controlling for policing efforts, crime rate correlated negatively with the similarity among citizens. This is in line with the prediction that high similarity results in higher levels of cooperative self-restraint (i.e. lower crime rates) because it aligns the interests of individuals. Second, policing effort correlated negatively with the similarity among citizens, supporting the prediction that more policing is required to enforce cooperation in low-similarity societies, where individuals' interests diverge most. Third, increased policing efforts were associated with reductions in crime rates, indicating that policing indeed enforces cooperation. These analyses strongly indicate that humans respond to cues of their social environment and adjust cheating and policing behaviour as predicted by evolutionary policing theory.
The origins of the pimp
James Bowery:
Watching the documentary cited by Bowery and the anonymous HBD nerd, I was not impressed. The reality is being a pimp requires little more than sociopathy, forswearance of dignity, and knowledge of a simple formula. Furthermore, comments like these betray an incredible lack of historical perspective. Hint: "pimp" is not a Swahili word.
Mind control of young females is all important in the GOD “game”. So why don’t we see more white pimps?An anonymous comment posted a few years ago at Sailer's offers a similar example of nerd negrophilia: Watch "American Pimp," it will give clues into why only the charismatic African personality has the force to keep prostitutes [. . .] in line.
Ever watch ”American Pimp”?
Watching the documentary cited by Bowery and the anonymous HBD nerd, I was not impressed. The reality is being a pimp requires little more than sociopathy, forswearance of dignity, and knowledge of a simple formula. Furthermore, comments like these betray an incredible lack of historical perspective. Hint: "pimp" is not a Swahili word.
Why it's wrong to catch criminals using the DNA profiles of their convicted felon relatives
Law professor Jeffrey Rosen says:
The biggest immediate concern is that familial searches are racially discriminatory. African-Americans represent about 13 percent of the United States population but 40 percent of the people convicted of felonies every year.
Hank Greely of Stanford Law School has estimated that 17 percent of African-American citizens could be identified through familial searches, compared with only 4 percent of the Caucasian population. Is it fair to subject African-American families to disproportionate genetic surveillance simply because one member of the family committed a crime in the past?
Some proponents of familial searches, like Dr. Frederick Bieber of Harvard Medical School, have insisted that "crime cluster[s] in families,” in language that echoes the discredited eugenic family studies of the early 20th century, with their discriminatory emphasis on “genetic criminality.” In a state with a history of tension between African-American citizens and the police, California’s familial searching policy may provoke a debate that makes the one over racial profiling look tame.
Why criminals are less intelligent than non-criminals
Satoshi Kanazawa's explanation:
Men with lower intelligence are less likely truly to comprehend evolutionarily novel entities. Some of these evolutionarily novel entities are alternative means to resource acquisition and accumulation they could pursue instead of evolutionarily familiar means which are now classified as criminal in civilized societies. Other evolutionarily novel entities they are less likely truly to comprehend are means that law enforcement agencies employ to detect and capture criminals. The Hypothesis therefore offers one possible explanation for the negative association between intelligence and criminality.I've argued before that black-white differences in criminality are driven primarily by differences in intelligence -- not testosterone. I've also previously observed that black-white multiples for brawling and raping are low compared to those for crimes like car theft, drug dealing, and mugging, consistent the idea that a lack of intelligence leading to ill-considered efforts at resource acquisition rather than greater innate aggressiveness underlies the difference.
At the same time, the Hypothesis also offers a novel hypothesis with regard to intelligence and criminality. As I mention above, while formal third-party enforcement of norms is evolutionarily novel, second-party enforcement and informal third-party enforcement are evolutionarily familiar. Thus the Hypothesis would predict that the difference in intelligence between criminals and noncriminals will disappear in situations where formal third-party enforcement of norms is weak or absent, and criminal behavior is controlled largely via second-party enforcement, such as situations of prolonged anarchy and statelessness, in fact, any situation that resembles the ancestral environment. Paradoxically, the Hypothesis would predict that less intelligent men will commit fewer crimes if the police disappeared, although more intelligent men may commit more crimes then.Murders and rapes of whites by blacks in America took off during the 20th century (relative to the reverse). Kanazawa's hypothesis suggests the evaporation of the threat of extrajudicial punishment and increased state protections for blacks may be responsible for this state of affairs. Update: From Crime and Human Nature:
it is possible that differences in sanctions have had an impact on the extent to which members of different races are inclined to handle aggression by resort to assaults and homicide. Suppose that over the generations, law enforcement officials ignored or treated leniently the most common forms of serious black crime (dangerous or fatal assaults on blacks by blacks), reserving the full force of their sanctions for the much rarer cases of assaults by blacks on whites. In 1937 John Dollard wrote of the harmful effects of the double standard of justice then evident in a small southern town and which probably persisted for many decades throughout the South and in some parts of the North: "Negro crime" was less serious than "white crime," a view sometimes defended on grounds of a high-minded indulgence of "Negro ways." As Dollard wrote:According to the thinking of 1930s sociologist Dollard, shifting the burden of law enforcement among blacks more to the state should have lowered their crime rates. Instead, in keeping with Kanazawa's prediction:
The formal machinery of the law takes care of the Negroes' grievances much less adequately than that of the whites, and to a much higher degree the Negro is compelled to make and enforce his own law with other Negroes. . . . The result is that the individual Negro is, to a considerable degree, outside the protection of the white law, and must shift for himself. This leads to the frontier psychology. . . . [This] condoning of Negro violence . . . may be indulgent in the case of any given Negro, but its effect on the Negro group as a whole is dangerous and destructive.[pp. 475-476]
the homicide fatality rate among black males nearly doubled between the early 1960s and 1973, increasing from 34.3 to 65.8 per 100,000; the change among whites was much smaller. [. . .] Roger Lane estimates that in Philadelphia the black homicide rate was about three times greater than that of whites during the nineteenth century but had become about twelve times larger by the middle of the twentieth century and nearly twenty times larger by the 1970s. [p. 472]
Murders in black neighborhoods cause low black IQ
A commenter alerts Steve Sailer, evidently not in jest, that "breakthrough research" has been published that puts Sailer out of business by establishing "a direct causal relationship that can't be explained away by other factors" between murder rates and IQ. "Curiously", Hispanic IQs remain unaffected by black murders in their neighborhoods. I'm certain that the Sailer commenter's confidence is well-placed and the researcher can't possibly have causality reversed here, but if you care to examine his methods and have access to PNAS, here's a link to the the paper.
Some notes on Sheldon and correlations between physique and personality
A pdf version of William H. Sheldon's 1942 book Varieties of temperament: a psychology of constitutional differences can be downloaded here. A summary of Sheldon's claims and some later work:
Sheldon (1942) claimed to have found strong correlations between somatotype and human behavior.John Derbyshire mentions a 1951 Life magazine article on Sheldon's work.
He posited three fundamental dimensions of temperament, each associated with a component of physique;
Table 1 shows the correlations between temperament and somatotype found by Sheldon (1942).
- Visceratonia (associated with endomorphy) is characterized by lassitude, slow reaction to stimuli, and love of eating and physical comfort.
- Somatotonia (associated with mesomorphy) is characterized by assertiveness, risk taking, aggressiveness, and indifference to pain.
- Cerebrotonia (associated with ectomorphy) is characterized by physical and emotional restraint, fast reaction to stimuli, and social inhibition (Sheldon, 1942).
Table 1. Correlations between temperament and somatotype reported by Sheldon (p. 400, 1942)
Note. All coefficients are significant at p < .01. N = 200.
Endomorphy Mesomorphy Ectomorphy Viscerotonia .79 -.23 -.40 Somatotonia -.29 .82 -.53 Cerebrotonia -.32 -.58 .83
However, these results were strongly criticized on methodological grounds. Sheldon’s early method of somatotyping, used in the 1942 study, involved a degree of subjective judgment (Carter and Heath, 1990; Cortés and Gatti, 1972; Parnell, 1958) and the ratings of temperament were made by the same researcher (Sheldon) who somatotyped the subjects. Sheldon fully acknowledged this latter point; [. . .]
Nevertheless, constitutional psychology can not be so easily dismissed. For example, there is now a large literature on the relationship between somatotype and a variety of health conditions, including hypertension and heart disease (Singh, 2007). Both Child (1950) and Cortés and Gatti (1965) tried to replicate Sheldon’s psychological findings using more objective somatotyping procedures and self-report measures of temperament. These results are shown in Tables 2 and 3.
Table 2. Correlations between temperament and somatotype reported by Child (p. 447, 1950)
Note. N = 400. **p < .01.
Endomorphy Mesomorphy Ectomorphy Viscerotonia .13** .13** -.15** Somatotonia .03 .38** -.37** Cerebrotonia -.03 -.38** .27**
Table 3. Correlations between temperament and somatotype reported by Cortés and Gatti (p. 57, 1972)
Note. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001. N = 114. Other values not reported.
Endomorphy Mesomorphy Ectomorphy Viscerotonia .35** Somatotonia .22* Cerebrotonia .34***
While the effect sizes were lower than those found by Sheldon, the pattern of correlations in these studies is essentially the same. There is now a substantial body of research showing weak to moderate correlations between somatotype and such variables as occupational interest (Deabler, Hartl, and Willis, 1975), academic performance (Parnell, 1958), temperament type (Peterson, Liivamagi, and Koskel, 2006), and susceptibility to hypnosis (Edmonston, 1977). Perhaps the most studied behavioral correlate of somatotype is the relationship between criminal behavior and mesomorphy (Cortés and Gatti, 1972; Glueck and Glueck, 1956). In a review of the research, Ellis and Walsh (2000) note that “to date, all studies have reported significant tendencies for delinquents and criminals to be more mesomorphic than persons in general” (p. 278).
[Jeremy E. C. Genovese. Physique Correlates with Reproductive Success in an Archival Sample of Delinquent Youth. Evolutionary Psychology. 2008. 6(3): 369-385.]
On the basis of his work up to now, many workers in the psychiatric field and in the allied sciences of sociology and anthropology are convinced that Dr. Sheldon has done what Hippocrates tried to do 2,500 years ago: he has shown that character and physique are closely related, and that the first, like the second, is to a considerable extent a product of heredity.A fan of his work is mortified by Sheldon's political views:
[Robert Coughlan. What Manner of Morph Are You? In old debate on what makes temperament a new school of "constitutional psychiatry" gives heredity equal place with environment. LIFE Jun 25, 1951.]
Sheldon in The Varieties of Delinquent Youth ranted about the endomorphic-mesomorphic mothers of the delinquents, and how America had become mongrelized from its original New England Anglo-Saxon origins. But just how much of a racist was Sheldon? Here we can look at the account by John Sample, in "A Closer Look at William H. Sheldon." It certainly looks like Sheldon had become prey to all sorts of fearful and hostile fantasies.From the aforementioned essay by John Sample:
Far from a coolly objective social theorist, Sheldon, vituperatively anti-Semitic, favored northern Europeans, particularly Anglo-Saxons, as his preferred racial groups.Sheldon's origins:
At the end of our visit, Sheldon said I could look forward to doing "great things." I think he may have said this because I was a reasonably intelligent, clean-cut Wasp! [. . .] He sent me on my way with a copy of American Nazi Lincoln Rockwell’s biography… Those visits ended my personal contact with William H. Sheldon.
William Herbert Sheldon was born in Pawtuxet, Rhode Island, on November 19, 1898. His parents, William Herbert and Mary Abby Greene, were related to old New England families like the Carders and Remingtons. And his father had been well off until a partner in the family firm ran off with the money. William and Mary had lost their first two daughters to diphtheria and then had three more children: Israel in 1889, Kate in 1891, and finally William seven years later. Sheldon's father had been able to keep the family homestead, which dated from around 1740, and supported his family by working as a jeweler in nearby Providence.More:
William Herbert Sheldon was born in Warwick, Rhode Island, to an old New England family; his father bred poultry and dogs competitively. Sheldon’s early familiarity with the idea of breeding better species, and his sense of the importance of his own Anglo-Saxon pedigree, fed into his lifelong advocacy of eugenics, the program for breeding better humans that inspired his morphological research. Through his father’s tutelage, Sheldon came to recognize what he later termed a t or thoroughbred factor in the human constitution, the quality of appearing aesthetically pleasing.This page lists some ways to determine body types; "measure your temperament", from the 1951 Life article:
[Nicole Rafter. SOMATOTYPING, ANTIMODERNISM, AND THE PRODUCTION OF CRIMINOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE. Criminology. Volume 45 Issue 4, Pages 805 - 833.]
More on race, crime, and intelligence
Nathaniel Weyl, writing in 1973:
The hypothesis which I should like to explore in these pages is that the criminality of races and subraces tends to vary inversely with their intelligence.Besides containing additional data showing the relationship between criminality and intelligence, this article also touches on some other issues raised in the comments of the previous post:
This thesis would seem a priori plausible on two grounds. The first is that a variety of studies have shown that the average l.Q.s of criminals and prison inmates are significantly lower than those of the populations from which they are drawn. The second is that most crimes seem to be committed by people who are deficient in such positive psychic qualities as foresight and selfcontrol.
The hypothesis would not, however, apply to all types of crime. Such offenses as embezzlement, forgery, fraud, and even operating numbers games, are differentially attractive to people of above-average intelligence. These mentally exacting felonies yield a small proportion of total arrests, convictions, and sentences. Those who engage in them are not typical criminals.
Professor Bonger presents statistics on criminal convictions of Jews, as compared with non-Jews, per 100,000 inhabitants over 14 years oki for Germany (1882-1891, 1892-1901. 1909- 1910, 1915 and 1916), Austria (1885-1900). Hungary (1904. 1906- 1909). Poland (1924-1925) and the Netherlands (1901-1909. 1910-1915, 1919 and 1931-1933). The German data for 1909-1910 are probably as representative as any for the pre-First World War period. They show that Jews committed proportionately two and a half times as many frauds and forgeries as Gentiles. Their conviction rate for "insult" was about 40 per cent higher and they participated about equally with non-Jews in proportion to population in embezzlement and receiving stolen goods. The Jewish rate for theft. however, was 71.1 per 100.000 as against 178.3 for all other components of the population. Their conviction rate was about 40 per cent of the Gentile rate for felonious assault, about half that rate for rape, less than a third for murder and about a fifth for malicious mischief.More excerpts within:
The Dark Side of High Self-Esteem
Interesting article, though probably wrong at least in some places (pdf):
Conventional wisdom has regarded low self-esteem as an important cause of violence, but the opposite view is theoretically viable. An interdisciplinary review of evidence about aggression, crime, and violence contradicted the view that low self-esteem is an important cause. Instead, violence appears to be most commonly a result of threatened egotism—that is, highly favorable views of self that are disputed by some person or circumstance. Inflated, unstable, or tentative beliefs in the self's superiority may be most prone to encountering threats and hence to causing violence. The mediating process may involve directing anger outward as a way of avoiding a downward revision of the self-concept. [. . .]
Comparing self-esteem across racial or ethnic groups is complicated by several factors, such as measurement issues and temporal changes, but the very possibility of temporal shifts presents an appealing chance to look for covariation in self-esteem and violence levels. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, American White men presumably were fairly securely convinced of their superior status. This confidence is generally assumed to have eroded in recent decades, and indeed research now indicates that Black people have self-esteem levels equal to or higher than those of White people (see Crocker & Major, 1989, for review). Concerted efforts to boost racial pride and dignity among Black Americans in the 1960s and 1970s may have contributed to this shift.
Meanwhile, violence levels also appear to have changed, and these changes directly contradict the view that low self-esteem promotes violence. During the period when White men had the highest self-esteem, they were also apparently the most violent group. Historians believe that rapes of White women by Black men were quite rare, whereas the reverse was relatively common (e.g., Brownmiller, 1975). Likewise, the majority of interracial murders involved White men killing Blacks, a pattern that is still reasonably well documented into the 1920s (e.g., Brearly, 1932; Hoffman, 1925; Von Hentig, 1948). These patterns have been reversed in recent decades as Black self-esteem has risen relative to White self-esteem. According to Scully (1990), Black men now rape White women approximately 10 times as often as White men rape Black women. The timing of this reversal appears to coincide with the concerted cultural efforts to boost self-esteem among Blacks: LaFree's (1976) review of multiple studies of interracial rape concluded that researchers found approximately equal numbers of Black-on-White and White-on-Black rape in the 1950s, but since 1960 all studies have found a preponderance of Black-on-White rape (see also Brownmiller, 1975). Similarly, recent murder statistics indicate that the strong majority (80%–90%) of interracial murders now consist of Blacks murdering Whites (Adler, 1994). Clearly, both races have committed far too many horrible crimes, and neither race can find much claim to any moral high ground in these statistics, but the shifting patterns on both sides repeatedly link higher or rising esteem with increasing criminal violence toward the other.
[Baumeister RF, Smart L, Boden JM. Relation of threatened egotism to violence and aggression: the dark side of high self-esteem. Psychol Rev. 1996 Jan;103(1):5-33.]
What explains racial differences in crime?
As we've seen, not testosterone. A much better candidate for explaining racial differences in criminality: racial differences in intelligence. Robert Gordon demonstrated decades ago that simply controlling for IQ eliminates almost the entire black-white gap in juvenile delinquency, and Murray and Herrnstein similarly find IQ explains most of the black-white difference in incarceration rates:
Sociologist Robert Gordon has analyzed black-white differences in crime and concluded that virtually all of the difference in the prevalence of black and white juvenile delinquents is explained by the IQ difference, independent of the effect of socioeconomic status. The only reliable indicator from the NLSY that lets us compare criminal behavior across ethnic groups is the percentage of young men who were ever interviewed while incarcerated.The figure below shows the standard comparison, before and after controlling for cognitive ability. Among white men, the proportion interviewed in a correctional facility after controlling for age was 2.4 percent; among black men, it was 13.1 percent. This large black-white difference was reduced by almost three-quarters when IQ was taken into account. The relationship of cognitive ability to criminal behavior among whites and blacks appears to be similar. 40 As in the case of other indicators, we are left with a nontrivial black-white difference even after controlling for IQ, but the magnitude of the difference shrinks dramatically.A more recent paper by Gordon (Everyday life as an intelligence test: Effects of intelligence and intelligence context. Intelligence, 24, 203-320.) confirms his results for juvenile delinquency and extends them to adult criminality.
[The Bell Curve, pp. 338-339; two papers by Robert Gordon are cited:
Gordon, R. A. 1987. SES versus IQ in the race-IQ-delinquency model. International J . of Sociology and Social Policy 7:30-96.
Gordon, R. A. 1976. Prevalence: The rare datum in delinquency measurement and its implications for the theory of delinquency. In The Juvenile Justice System. M. W. Klein (ed.). Beverly Hills, Cal.: Sage Publications, pp. 201-284.]
Can racial differences in circulating testosterone explain racial differences in crime?
No. According to the DOJ:
In reality, large, representative US samples show minimal or no black-white differences in T. Using NHANES III data, Rohrmann et al. find elevated estrogen but not testosterone in black males. A recent reanalysis by Mazur (which Jason Malloy alerted me to), in which Mazur examines the same data but applies no sampling weights, finds slightly elevated T in blacks. Mazur, reviewing the results of his and other studies, nonetheless concludes:
Moreover, Mazur finds no racial differences in T among adolescents (consistent with the findings of a larger study of adolescents). So how does guywhite explain differences in criminality between black and white teenagers? How does he explain greater Mexican criminality? How does he explain criminality in sub-Saharan Africa when sub-Saharan Africans average lower T than Westerners? Note that, as I've explained to guywhite repeatedly, why sub-Saharan Africans have lower T is immaterial; the question is how their managing to combine low T and high criminality squares with guywhite's simplistic model of the world.
Of course environment influences T levels. (McCain supporters "suffered a testosterone crash after Obama's victory became apparent".) Mazur notes that lower rates of marriage and weight gain explain much of the black elevation in T he observes. Black-white T differences increase with age (in Mazur's plots, they appear minuscule before the age of about 30), perhaps due in part to differences in mortality:
N.B.: There's no evidence here that baseline racial differences in adiposity are caused by (or cause) racial differences in T (no racial differences in T were found among adolescents, and minuscule differences were found among young men). As with criminality, relative leanness seems to characterize both American black and black African males, even though black Africans have markedly lower T. Similarly, elevated estrogen, having been observed in both American blacks and black Africans, seems to be a relatively stable racial feature unrelated to elevated T.
an estimated 32% of black males will enter State or Federal prison during their lifetime, compared to 17% of Hispanic males and 5.9% of white males.Assuming levels of testosterone (T) and criminality are perfectly correlated (they're not--the relationship between testosterone and criminality is far from clear even within populations), a third of black males would need to have higher T than all but 6% of white men to explain black-white differences in crime in terms favored by guywhite.
In reality, large, representative US samples show minimal or no black-white differences in T. Using NHANES III data, Rohrmann et al. find elevated estrogen but not testosterone in black males. A recent reanalysis by Mazur (which Jason Malloy alerted me to), in which Mazur examines the same data but applies no sampling weights, finds slightly elevated T in blacks. Mazur, reviewing the results of his and other studies, nonetheless concludes:
Despite inconsistencies among studies, all agree that there are no major, general differences in T or SHBG (or calculated BioT) among the ethnic groups that have been studied.A glance at Mazur's scatterplots suffices to confirm that, no, 32% of black men do not in fact have higher T than all but 6% of white men.
Of course environment influences T levels. (McCain supporters "suffered a testosterone crash after Obama's victory became apparent".) Mazur notes that lower rates of marriage and weight gain explain much of the black elevation in T he observes. Black-white T differences increase with age (in Mazur's plots, they appear minuscule before the age of about 30), perhaps due in part to differences in mortality:
Possibly a high mortality rate among obese black men produces the appearance of stable adiposity (and high T) among black survivors.So it's clear differences in circulating testosterone can't explain black-white differences in crime, and unclear that any small black-white differences in circulating T that may exist in a given sample call for some deep (or hilariously shallow in guywhite's case) evolutionary explanation.
N.B.: There's no evidence here that baseline racial differences in adiposity are caused by (or cause) racial differences in T (no racial differences in T were found among adolescents, and minuscule differences were found among young men). As with criminality, relative leanness seems to characterize both American black and black African males, even though black Africans have markedly lower T. Similarly, elevated estrogen, having been observed in both American blacks and black Africans, seems to be a relatively stable racial feature unrelated to elevated T.
Replies to Guy White
Guy White is a little bitch with no integrity who likes to pretend he is a master debater but censors comments that point out his errors of fact and reasoning. He prefers to argue against straw men and only allows posts by the dumbest proponents of ideas he disagrees with.
Guy,
You're way too smug for someone who has no idea what he's talking about. Try applying the standards of evidence you demand from "anti-semites" to yourself rather than simply rehashing misinformation you read on blogs, or "reasoning" starting from flawed or incomplete information.
"But how did this stereotype come about? Because blacks were better than whites. Because they look like they are better."
Strength and performance are not measured by appearance -- much less by the subjective impression of some dork on the internet.
"Blacks are known to have thicker skulls and stronger bones. This is the by-product of having higher testosterone"
Not likely.
Wright et al (34) obtained measurements of both growth
hormone and BMD in 16 black and 17 white men. Serum 17bestradiol,
growth hormone concentration and secretion, and BMD
were all greater in blacks than in whites. The authors suggested
that the higher circulating estradiol concentrations in blacks may
have contributed to the greater secretion of growth hormone,
which in turn led to an increase in bone mass. Heaney (35) suggested
that BMC and BMD may be regulated by a “mechanostat,”
which is analogous to a thermostat that regulates temperature.
According to the mechanostat theory, a network of osteocytes
detects bone strain and modulates the activity of remodeling
cells. The mechanostat set point in blacks is lower than that in
whites; ie, the strain needed to trigger bone growth is less in
blacks, giving them denser bones. Heaney speculated that growth
hormone plays a role in establishing the bone mass set point.
Measures of body composition in blacks and whites: a comparative review
DR Wagner, VH Heyward - American journal of clinical nutrition, 2000 - Am Soc Nutrition
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/ajcn;71/6/1392
"It is grotesquely unscientific to suggest that blacks commit more crime because of testosterone, but somehow their testosterone doesn’t produce any positive effects."
Keep the first half of that sentence. There's never been any good evidence racial differences in crime are caused by racial differences in circulating testosterone. This was merely a theory suggested by Rushton. Problems with the theory (which I pointed out to you months ago in a comment you failed to post -- let's see if this one goes through):
- Large, representative US samples show little or no black-white differences in T.
- T is markedly lower in Sub-Saharan Africa than in America and Europe, while the African crime rate is higher.
IQ apparently accounts for more than half the black-white difference in criminality in the US. I suspect variation in genes such as MAOA will eventually be found to account for most of the rest.
Guy White doesn't post the comment, but attempts a response via email. My reply:
Stereotypes come into existence in any number of ways. Many have at least some basis in in reality, but what you've written above is simply retarded.
If I have this right, one of the "stereotypes" you're promoting is that black men are taller than white men, which is of course ass backwards -- white men are taller than black men in the US.
Negroes commonly claim all serial killers and pedophiles are white. This "stereotype" is not "usually true". The kernel of truth is that blacks are merely less overrepresented among serial killers and pedophiles than they are among most other classes of criminal.
The degree to which that's true is an empirical matter, not something to be decided by Guy White "logic". And it's much simpler to just measure strength and performance directly.
One can think of several racial differences that affect appearance but not sports performance. Bodybuilders tan in the belief that darker skin makes muscular relief more apparent. Relative to whites, blacks also tend to store less of their subcutaneous fat on the fronts of their body and more on the back. Blacks have shorter torsos and narrower and shallower chests (as well as smaller lungs), which may make whatever upper body muscle mass they possess look more impressive by contrast. The smaller torso should present an advantage in sprinting, but not in sports like wrestling or weightlifting.
And? Are you seriously this bad at following arguments?
Please shut the fuck up. You don't have the slightest clue what science is.
The excerpt lays out a plausible etiology for greater black bone density. It was not meant to "prove" black men have higher estrogen levels. That fact is not seriously up for debate. Black men have repeatedly and consistently been found to have elevated estrogen levels, here and in Africa, since study commenced in the 1930s.The same can't be said for testosterone levels. If you had done your own research rather than recycling "facts" you got thirdhand (ultimately via Rushton), you would know this.
Again: we're concerned with black-white differences. It's sort of difficult to blame black-white differences in crime on black-white differences in testosterone when the latter are very small, non-existent, or even fairly large in the wrong direction when we look at Africa itself.
Where's your "mainstream source" for this?
Here's the point, you fucking clown: whatever reason Africans have lower T levels than Europeans, the fact remains: they have lower T levels. Since they don't have lower crime rates, this tends to rule out testosterone as the causal agent in black-white differences in crime. Likewise for testosterone causing black-white differences in bone density or other body composition variables which are stable between American blacks and black Africans.
Guy,
You're way too smug for someone who has no idea what he's talking about. Try applying the standards of evidence you demand from "anti-semites" to yourself rather than simply rehashing misinformation you read on blogs, or "reasoning" starting from flawed or incomplete information.
"But how did this stereotype come about? Because blacks were better than whites. Because they look like they are better."
Strength and performance are not measured by appearance -- much less by the subjective impression of some dork on the internet.
"Blacks are known to have thicker skulls and stronger bones. This is the by-product of having higher testosterone"
Not likely.
Wright et al (34) obtained measurements of both growth
hormone and BMD in 16 black and 17 white men. Serum 17bestradiol,
growth hormone concentration and secretion, and BMD
were all greater in blacks than in whites. The authors suggested
that the higher circulating estradiol concentrations in blacks may
have contributed to the greater secretion of growth hormone,
which in turn led to an increase in bone mass. Heaney (35) suggested
that BMC and BMD may be regulated by a “mechanostat,”
which is analogous to a thermostat that regulates temperature.
According to the mechanostat theory, a network of osteocytes
detects bone strain and modulates the activity of remodeling
cells. The mechanostat set point in blacks is lower than that in
whites; ie, the strain needed to trigger bone growth is less in
blacks, giving them denser bones. Heaney speculated that growth
hormone plays a role in establishing the bone mass set point.
Measures of body composition in blacks and whites: a comparative review
DR Wagner, VH Heyward - American journal of clinical nutrition, 2000 - Am Soc Nutrition
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/ajcn;71/6/1392
"It is grotesquely unscientific to suggest that blacks commit more crime because of testosterone, but somehow their testosterone doesn’t produce any positive effects."
Keep the first half of that sentence. There's never been any good evidence racial differences in crime are caused by racial differences in circulating testosterone. This was merely a theory suggested by Rushton. Problems with the theory (which I pointed out to you months ago in a comment you failed to post -- let's see if this one goes through):
- Large, representative US samples show little or no black-white differences in T.
- T is markedly lower in Sub-Saharan Africa than in America and Europe, while the African crime rate is higher.
IQ apparently accounts for more than half the black-white difference in criminality in the US. I suspect variation in genes such as MAOA will eventually be found to account for most of the rest.
Guy White doesn't post the comment, but attempts a response via email. My reply:
2. Stereotypes come about as a result of something being "usually true".
Stereotypes come into existence in any number of ways. Many have at least some basis in in reality, but what you've written above is simply retarded.
If I have this right, one of the "stereotypes" you're promoting is that black men are taller than white men, which is of course ass backwards -- white men are taller than black men in the US.
Negroes commonly claim all serial killers and pedophiles are white. This "stereotype" is not "usually true". The kernel of truth is that blacks are merely less overrepresented among serial killers and pedophiles than they are among most other classes of criminal.
3. Strength and performance could be estimated by looking at the person.
The degree to which that's true is an empirical matter, not something to be decided by Guy White "logic". And it's much simpler to just measure strength and performance directly.
One can think of several racial differences that affect appearance but not sports performance. Bodybuilders tan in the belief that darker skin makes muscular relief more apparent. Relative to whites, blacks also tend to store less of their subcutaneous fat on the fronts of their body and more on the back. Blacks have shorter torsos and narrower and shallower chests (as well as smaller lungs), which may make whatever upper body muscle mass they possess look more impressive by contrast. The smaller torso should present an advantage in sprinting, but not in sports like wrestling or weightlifting.
4. Testosterone does increase bone density.
And? Are you seriously this bad at following arguments?
Please do not cite studies with 15 people. Those aren't scientific.
Please shut the fuck up. You don't have the slightest clue what science is.
The excerpt lays out a plausible etiology for greater black bone density. It was not meant to "prove" black men have higher estrogen levels. That fact is not seriously up for debate. Black men have repeatedly and consistently been found to have elevated estrogen levels, here and in Africa, since study commenced in the 1930s.The same can't be said for testosterone levels. If you had done your own research rather than recycling "facts" you got thirdhand (ultimately via Rushton), you would know this.
5. High-T has been linked to violence.
Again: we're concerned with black-white differences. It's sort of difficult to blame black-white differences in crime on black-white differences in testosterone when the latter are very small, non-existent, or even fairly large in the wrong direction when we look at Africa itself.
6. Africans have less T because many have poor diet.
Where's your "mainstream source" for this?
Here's the point, you fucking clown: whatever reason Africans have lower T levels than Europeans, the fact remains: they have lower T levels. Since they don't have lower crime rates, this tends to rule out testosterone as the causal agent in black-white differences in crime. Likewise for testosterone causing black-white differences in bone density or other body composition variables which are stable between American blacks and black Africans.
State-level differences in personality
Update (9/14/08): Vanishing American comments; full text (pdf, final version).
The surprising results:
Manuscript (pdf). Abstract.
The surprising results:
New York is home to the most neurotic and unfriendly people in American while North Dakota is where the nicest people live, according to a Cambridge University "personality map" of the USA.
[. . .]
Researchers created the first ever map of its kind is based on the results of a six year online survey of 620,000 people.
They claim it reveals how certain types of people are more likely to live and flourish in different parts of the country and showed links between personality traits and social phenomenon, like crime rates.
[. . .]
The report, "The Geography Of Personality; A Theory of the Emergence, Persistence and Expression of Geographic Variation in Basic Traits" is published in the journal, Perspectives On Psychological Science.
Key findings:
EXTRAVERSION
Personality traits: Sociable, energetic and enthusiastic
High-scoring states: North Dakota, Wisconsin, District of Columbia, Nebraska, Minnesota, Georgia, South Dakota, Utah, Illinois, Florida
Low-scoring states: Vermont, Washington, Alaska, New Hampshire, Maryland, Idaho, Virginia, Oregon, Montana, Massachusetts
AGREEABLENESS
Personality traits: Warm, compassionate, co-operative and friendly.
Highest-scoring states: North Dakota, Minnesota, Mississippi, Utah, Wisconsin, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma, Nebraska.
Lowest-scoring states: New York, Nevada, Wyoming, District of Columbia, Alaska, Maine, Rhode Island, Virginia, Connecticut, Montana.
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
Personality traits: Dutiful, responsible, self-disciplined.
Highest-scoring states: New Mexico, North Carolina, Georgia, Utah, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Florida, Arizona, Missouri.
Lowest-scoring states: Wyoming, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Maine, Alaska, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York.
NEUROTICISM
Personality traits: Anxious, stressful and impulsive.
Highest-scoring states: West Virginia, Rhode Island, New York, Mississippi, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Arkansas.
Lowest-scoring states: Alaska, Oregon, South Dakota, Colorado, Utah, Washington, Arizona, Nebraska, North Dakota, Nevada.
OPENNESS
Personality traits: Curious, intellectual, creative.
Highest-scoring states: District of Columbia, New York, Oregon, Massachusetts, Washington, California, Vermont, Colorado, Nevada, Maryland.
Lowest-scoring states: Wisconsin, Alabama, Alaska, Wyoming, North Dakota, Hawaii, Kentucky, Nebraska, Iowa, Delaware.
Manuscript (pdf). Abstract.
Genetics of criminality
Press release:
Another relevant paper:
In one of the first studies to link molecular genetic variants to adolescent delinquency, sociological research published in the August issue of the American Sociological Review identifies three genetic predictors--of serious and violent delinquency--that gain predictive precision when considered together with social influences, such as family, friends and school processes.The paper:
[. . .]
The three genetic polymorphisms that predict delinquency include:
1. the 30-base pair (bp) promoter-region with a variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) in the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene,
2. the 40-bp VNTR in the dopamine transporter 1 (DAT1) gene and
3. the Taq1 polymorphism in the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) gene. MAOA regulates several brain neurotransmitters important in behavioral motivation, aggression, emotion and cognition (e.g., serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine).
The Integration of Genetic Propensities into Social-Control Models of Delinquency and Violence among Male YouthsMy guess is genetic differences such as these (along with IQ) will ultimately be shown to account for a much larger fraction of cross-racial variation in crime than racial differences in circulating testosterone levels (which seem far from fixed). I don't have population frequency data for the specific polymorphisms mentioned above, but the SNP rs979606 in MAOA, for example, varies in the familiar Asian <> European <> African pattern. Update: Racial differences are also apparent in DRD2 Taq1 genotypes and the DAT1 40 bp VNTR, though their meaning is not clear to me yet.
Authors: Guo, Guang; Roettger, Michael E.; Cai, Tianji
Source: American Sociological Review, Volume 73, Number 4, August 2008 , pp. 543-568(26)
Abstract:
This study, drawing on approximately 1,100 males from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, demonstrates the importance of genetics, and genetic-environmental interactions, for understanding adolescent delinquency and violence. Our analyses show that three genetic polymorphisms—specifically, the 30-bp promoter-region variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) in MAOA, the 40-bp VNTR in DAT1, and the Taq1 polymorphism in DRD2—are significant predictors of serious and violent delinquency when added to a social-control model of delinquency. Importantly, findings also show that the genetic effects of DRD2 and MAOA are conditional and interact with family processes, school processes, and friendship networks. These results, which are among the first that link molecular genetic variants to delinquency, significantly expand our understanding of delinquent and violent behavior, and they highlight the need to simultaneously consider their social and genetic origins.
Another relevant paper:
Neuropsychopharmacology (2008) 33, 425–430; doi:10.1038/sj.npp.1301417; published online 11 April 2007
A Non-Additive Interaction of a Functional MAO-A VNTR and Testosterone Predicts Antisocial Behavior
Rickard L Sjöberg et al.
Abstract
A functional VNTR polymorphism in the promoter of the monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA-LPR) has previously been shown to be an important predictor of antisocial behavior in men. Testosterone analogues are known to interact with the MAOA promoter in vitro to influence gene transcription as well as in vivo to influence CSF levels of the MAO metabolite 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG) in human males. We examined the possible joint effects of testosterone (measured in CSF) and MAOA-LPR genotype on antisocial personality disorder and scores on the Brown–Goodwin Aggression scale in 95 unrelated male criminal alcoholics and 45 controls. The results confirm that MAOA genotype and CSF testosterone interact to predict antisocial behaviors. The MAOA/testosterone interaction also predicted low levels of CSF MHPG, which tentatively suggests the possibility that the interaction may be mediated by a direct effect on gene transcription. If replicated these findings offer plausible explanations for previous inconsistencies in studies of the relationship between testosterone and male human aggression, as well as for how MAOA genotype may influence aggressive behavior in human males.
Keywords:
antisocial personality disorder, antisocial behavior, MAO-A gene, testosterone, gene by hormone interaction, MHPG
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