3 ms·
> a possible biological or genetic basis for crime could be misconstrued as racism. But what if it is isn't and it is something like impulsivity? I know someo
by rdtsc 8y ago
> a possible biological or genetic basis for crime could be misconstrued as racism.
But what if it is isn't and it is something like impulsivity? I know someone who worked for a large state prison system for many years. They've observed one common trait of the majority of people incarcerated is that they are very impulsive. They react rather than think things through. Often they regret the crime, but could be too late by then [+].
However the same impulsivity is also a trait of someone we might consider a "hero". Say someone jumping into the river or a fire to rescue a person, a salesperson quickly responding to a customer need and so on. Someone quickly responding and standing up to a bully to defend someone being abused.
At the genetic level it could be the same low level drive, but family, society and culture have a chance of molding that into either something good or destructive.
[+] There is a lot to be said there for the society and the correctional system being punitive and not much correctional per se, and mental illness playing large role as well but that's for a different post perhaps.
- roywiggins 8y agoLead exposure in children can cause ADHD and developmental delays. Other things can probably permanently affect your neurology as you're growing up and appear heritable because a family stays in the same place with the same economic conditions over generations. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/csem.asp?csem=34&po=10 https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/csem.asp?csem=34&po=10
- tclancy 8y agoYeah, I found that strange. One of the things that stuck with me from reading "How Children Succeed"[0] was that violence/ crises in the household tend to make kids impulsive and short-sighted in decision making. The idea kids who grow up around criminal parents would wind up doing the same because of modeling and the likelihood of violence or other frightening events like being put in foster care makes sense to me and doesn't have to have a biological underpinning to be true. [0] http://www.paultough.com/the-books/how-children-succeed/ http://www.paultough.com/the-books/how-children-succeed/
- PeterisP 8y agoFactors like this mean that the heritability of such things is even larger than the purely genetic effect, as the "nurture" part i.e. home environment also is quite hereditary.
- canjobear 8y agoOr more directly, criminality could be linked to very low levels of the personality trait Agreeableness, which is known to be genetically influenced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits#Heritability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits#He...
- rectang 8y agoSurely that theory will find an eager with the HN audience and its disgusting affinity for biological determinism. Quick to condemn the unsuccessful as unworthy, strident in praise of the inherent superiority of the successful, deeply uncomfortable with the notion of "luck".
- dang 8y agoIt's not a good idea to anthropomorphize HN. Inevitably that makes of it a demon composed of the nastiest scraps of comments you've seen here—and railing against demons, like you've done here, is inevitably unsubstantive. This community has millions of people, and the vast majority don't fit this description.
- rectang 8y agoZeitgeist forms here as it does for any gathering of humans, and zeitgeist need not be representative of the majority. Arguments denigrating outgroups as genetically unworthy will always find an eager audience at HN. It's no wonder that outgroups are, and will continue to remain, underrepresented -- such disparagement is a potent mechanism of exclusion. Expressing disgust with this self-reinforcing insularity may get me flagged and eventually banned. I won't go out of my way to do that, not least because I appreciate the HN mods' work (including today's constructive criticism). But if it happens, I won't regret it.
- opwieurposiu 8y agoNature or nurture, either way it's the parent's damn fault.