Can we predict criminality?

[AngryAmish]

"For most of the past century, analysis of the origins of crime has been dominated by sociological models. When Tony Blair declared in 1992 that his party would be "tough on the causes of crime," his audience presumed that he meant that Labour would try to eliminate crime-generating social ills such as poor housing, unemployment and inadequate schools. Discussion of the possible roots of offending and antisocial behaviour within individuals rarely formed part of elite public discourse. Punishment, the courts held, should be regulated by the severity of the crime, not the criminal's propensity to commit further offences.

One of the few challenges to this orthodoxy was made in the 1960s by Hans J Eysenck, for many years a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry. Eysenck believed that criminals' personalities could be rigidly categorised and that most of their behaviour was inherited. But his work on crime was attacked by mainstream sociological criminologists and had little influence on policy. Indeed, for most criminologists the concept of a personality more likely to commit crime was abhorrent"

snip

"The causes of "life-course persistent antisocial behaviour" are, wrote Moffitt, likely to lie "early in life, in factors that are present before or soon after birth." Behind the condition, she suggested, was an interactive process between some kind of neuropsychological condition and an individual's environment: "


It is a long and interesting article. There is some criminality research that suggests that if certain genetic and enviromental factors are present then a guy is much more likely to become a criminal.

Do you think that factors out of your control (genes and early life experiences) can create criminals?

[lpbk2713]

1. That's what racial profiling / driving while Black are all about.

A Black man or a Latino man driving a fancy car in south Florida are much more likely to be pulled over than a White man driving the same car because of the assumption that if the LEO searches the vehicle he will more than likely find probable cause. Law enforcement agencies say they don't use racial profiling but they do.

[madmusic]

2. Science historian warns of neo-eugenics

In an era when the Human Genome Project is considered the "Holy Grail" of modern biology, a historian of science warns that society runs a risk of becoming too confident that science can solve most human problems.

One possible outcome could be a new form of eugenics emerging in our society, said Garland E. Allen, Ph.D., professor of biology in Arts and Sciences, in a lecture delivered Saturday, Feb. 14, at a major national conference.

Eugenics was a social movement prevalent in Western culture from 1900 to 1940 that claimed many social, personality and mental traits were hereditary. This claim led to a belief that "bad heredity" in the poor, the working class and certain racial and ethnic groups was the cause of large-scale social problems.

Eugenicists sought to correct these problems by reducing the birth-rate among those deemed genetically defective and increasing it among those deemed genetically superior. The emphasis on better human breeding and racial purity became part of the stock-in-trade of the Nazi ideology that emerged so dramatically just before and during World War II.

...

In viewing the present, Allen sees some similarities to the approach eugenicists took 75 years ago. He cited an array both of behaviors and of social problems ranging from depression, risk-taking and homosexuality to criminality and substance abuse that many psychiatrists and psychologists today consider to be predominantly genetically based. The evidence for such claims, Allen stated, is about as simplistic as eugenicist claims of the past and has little more solid data behind it.

http://record.wustl.edu/archive/1998/02-19-98/2866.html

[AngryAmish]

4. That's the danger

For example the overwhelming majority of people with Down's Syndrome are aborted. That is eugenics in everything but name. It is unplanned but when folks are given a choice the fear of handicapped children drive people to abort.

[wuushew]

7. What is wrong with "voluntary eugenics"?

This is not the state board of mental health or the Nazi party calling the shots here it is the personal choices of couples/women who are in charge of their own biological offspring and the effect it has on the greater society.

Illness is not some fickle thing that is subject to fashion, I think we can agree that serious allergies, auto-immune disorders, or mental handicaps are not generally seen as positive human conditions or make life easier/more pleasant. Many infertility problems are inherited conditions by which if any current treatments are in essence "anti-eugenic" since the future is guaranteed to include more patients, more money or labor spent in the treatment of these people.

Why is this an accepted condition when much work can be done on diseases like malaria, HIV, or some other communicable diseases? Preventing diseases before they start is a massively more efficient use of finite resources.

I don't weep for the masses of people who never were only who are.

If I don't choose to have children because of the risk of my bad genes am I too guilty of eugenics and promoting an Übermensch strain of humanity?

[madmusic]

15. Nothing wrong with it, but...

It is not that simple. Surf on over to The Ethics of Genetics and check these out:

The savage solution
February 27, Dylan Evans: Don't be fooled by those who want to create super-humans - soon we'll all have to follow.
30.01.06, Madeleine Bunting: There is no stop button in the race for human re-engineering
01.01.06, Justin McCurry: Disgrace

[Atman]

3. Yes...first, does suspect have a (R) or "GOP" attached to his name?

Sure sign of a felon-to-be.

[area51]

5. You took the words right out of my mouth. (n/t)

[Ron Green]

6. There are behaviors observable in children that point to later criminal

activity, but it's certainly not an exact science. Thinking patterns that we try to help children grow out of (recklessness, uniqueness, blaming others, manipulation, etc.) are the foundations of criminal behavior in adults. What's not clear is the extent to which there's genetic predisposition toward hanging on to these antisocial thinking patterns past childhood.

[Uppanotch]

8. "the extent to which there's genetic predisposition toward hanging"

Who says there's ANY genetic predisposition?

[AngryAmish]

12. Please read the article

It may be genetics or expressions of genes.

[mopinko]

9. not so much genes-prenatal development

it is a proven fact that a stressed pregnancy results in fetal development that is swayed toward the "skills", if you will, that are needed in a hostile environment. more muscle development, quicker reflexes, etc. a well supported pregnancy results in better critical thinking, and a calmer response to the world.
this is the mechanism by which poverty leads to crime. this is, in fact, what mr darwin's laws dictate. a fall back from altruism in a world where altruism is not valued. a more harsh personality for a more harsh environment.
a good source of this info is thom hartmann's "the edison gene"
i often pontificate about what i will do someday when i get my magic wand. the first thing i will do is boink the politicians, and make them realize that there can be no better investment in a better world than to provide a steak dinner any day of the week to any pregnant woman that wants one.

[Ron Green]

13. That's a very good point.

All kinds of advantages, from neural development to autoimmunity, are supported by good prenatal health.

Another mechanism by which poverty leads to crime is of course the toxic advertising and media environment, the escape from which is nearly impossible for poor people.

Yet another is a cultural value placed in tribal honor and the fear of "losing face" or "looking weak." This is a normal adolescent value, but it's found in lots of neighborhoods in the United States and elsewhere. It's hard to separate this one from genetic influences.

[dflprincess]

10. Only when you have an ancestor named Prescott Bush

n/t

[Igel]

11. Predisposition to criminality, certainly;

overwhelming pressure to criminality, probably not. If so, very rarely.

I say this not so much because I've ever heard or Eysenck or agree with her reasoning, but because a fair amount of behavior is turning out to have a genetic component. Exactly where the genetic component factors in, how, and to what extent are open questions, IIRC.

Not that it matters: it's a statistical thing, and what holds for populations (whether defined by SES/non-intrinsic characteristics or by some other means) says little about any individual. The stats may say there's a 10% chance that you're a criminal, but you either are 100% a criminal or aren't a criminal at all.

[Beelzebud]

14. No, I don't agree with that sort of BS at all.

Ever seen Minority Report?

[patcox2]

16. Short answer: no.

We cannot predict with enough accuracy to justify taking action against people based on predictions of their behavior.

One example: although almost all serial killers tortured small animals as boys, not all boys who torture small animals become serical killers. Not even a majority, not even a lot.