Comments on: Proposed Biological Explanations For Historical Trends In Crime

By: Response to Anti-Reactionary FAQ, July 2014 | More Right

Response to Anti-Reactionary FAQ, July 2014 | More Right — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 12:45:17 +0000

[…] Scott has come closer to my view since my original post. We agree that crime has dropped since 1985, but I don’t consider this […]

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By: RCF

RCF — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 01:22:21 +0000

What does “endpoint crime” mean? When I googled “endpoint crime” (with quotes), this article was the top result, and the rest seem to be reposts of this article.

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By: Evelyn

Evelyn — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 18:34:27 +0000

The PUFA chart appears to be from the regularly updated survey Nutrient Content of the US Food Supply. Data from 1909-2006 available in multiple reports.
http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USFoodSupply.htm
“The nutrient content of the food supply is calculated by using data on the amount of food available for consumption from USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) and information on the nutrient composition of foods from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS). Estimates of per capita consumption for each commodity (in pounds per year) at retail level are multiplied by the amount of food energy and each of 27 nutrients and dietary components in the raw edible portion of the food. Results for each nutrient from all foods are totaled and converted to amount per capita per day.”

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By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 10:29:55 +0000

I liked it up until you cited Japan as an example of low murder & depression. Firstly there have been massive societal reforms since they lost WWII, & also Japan is an extremely depressed & suicidal country, much like the rest of asia. I stopped reading after that slip up.

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By: Prussian Prince of Automata

Prussian Prince of Automata — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 17:32:00 +0000

A wise woman once said;

“Don’t just do something, stand there!”

It’s a lot easier to jump on the first idea which comes to mind than to put in the time and really think it through, because thinking is hard at the best of times and anxiety grinds away at you the longer a problem doesn’t present an immediate solution. Think about the people who die in the desert because they leave their car and go wandering off into the unknown out of a misguided notion that they ought to be doing something to save themselves; had they merely stayed put, rescuers could have found them easily.

Wise people often appear passive for exactly the same reason; fools are constantly running around and exerting themselves uselessly for a vain hope of achieving their goal, but someone who knows the right time to act will wait and conserve their strength until action is called for. Trial and error has it’s place, but it’s a wasteful policy in most cases.

Edit: Added source of quote, corrected my misidentification of her sex. Also removed a repitition in the desert analogy.

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By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 17:09:20 +0000

Ineffectual or counterproductive efforts>doing nothing
Because you ineffectual or counterproductive efforts at least raise the possibility, however slim, of realizing that you’re doing something wrong, then eliminating a possible solution from the list, and possibly, by process of elimination and trying different things, you arrive at a working solution.

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By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 17:01:28 +0000

I came up with an answer for this:
RELIGION!
Omega-3 supplements every day as part of ritual, a la Communion wafers.
Also, fish isn’t the only source of omega-3, just the most widely known, as far as I can tell. Flax seeds, walnuts, and soybeans also contain fair amounts.

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By: Anthony

Anthony — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 00:36:28 +0000

A lot of crime, but not necessarily a lot of punishment. People in jail for drug offenses are largely violent people whom the prosecutor couldn’t quite make a case for their violent act, but could make an airtight case for their drug dealing. Even in states unlike Colorado, there aren’t many people in jail just for smoking pot, or even just for using heroin, even if that’s what their conviction is for.

On the other hand, as you mention, violent people go into drug dealing because it’s illegal; you don’t hear about liquor store owners shooting up bystanders in their turf battles.

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By: Anthony

Anthony — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 00:32:28 +0000

The other argument against the death penalty for rape (or any other crime which doesn’t leave a person dead) is that it increases the incentive for the criminal to murder the victim. If rape gets you the same punishment as murder, why not remove the witness? It improves your chances of not being caught and not being convicted, at no additional risk. Unless the cops are much more likely to follow up on a murder case than a rape case, which wouldn’t be likely if rape were also a capital crime.

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By: B

Fri, 21 Feb 2014 20:28:55 +0000

Scandinavians are rather orderly and homogenous in the first place. Each time I was in Sweden, I found people there so conforming to each other (and all the formal & informal rules) that they seemed almost boring. NB, I’m from a [European] place generally regarded as punctual, staid, hard-working and orderly. Oh, and we have Spa prisons too.

Norwegians are supposed to be similar, never been there. Treating criminals well is cheap if there are few and, more importantly, there’s little inclination towards disorderliness in the rest of the population.

I don’t think that would work with US demographics. I don’t just mean the 800 poun… on second thought, let’s not use that metaphor – there are a lot of, let’s say, more complicated populations in the US that are lily white, and also a lot of dregs amongst the recent imports.

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