Comments on: Did Falling Testosterone Affect Falling Crime?

By: Troy

Troy — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 14:06:17 +0000

Googling on this question revealed this paper by Herbert Moller, Voice Change in Human Biological Development: http://www.jstor.org/stable/204176?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Moller makes several claims of interest in that paper:

(1) The median age of voice change during puberty for men has decreased by 4 years over the last 3 centuries.

(2) Medieval music, e.g., Gregorian chants, was written for male voices that we would recognize as baritones or tenors today. Around the 15th century a gradual shift began in which bass parts became more common.

(2*) There is a parallel change of more parts being written for female voices, especially sopranos.

(3) Prior musicologists attributed (2) and (2*) above to cultural demand, but another plausible explanation is vocal supply — i.e., men’s voices have gotten deeper over time and women’s have gotten higher. One explanation of this is nutritional changes in the West. (Bass and soprano parts were added around the same time that consumption of meat and butter increased.) More recent nutritional changes and health improvements may similarly explain (1).

(4) Anecdotal reports from voice teachers suggest that since the 1960s there are an increasing number of deeper male and female voices. (p. 251)

(5) Studies of testoterone levels in male singers find higher levels in basses and baritones than tenors. (p. 252)

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By: Troy

Troy — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 13:42:53 +0000

Lo, I report my findings.

My choir director said that he’s never considered the question of whether men’s voices have been going up or down before, but that he hasn’t noticed any change. I asked him whether it was easier or harder to find men to sing Rachmaninoff nowadays. He said he didn’t think there was a difference, and that if there was it’s not as big as the difference between ethnic groups (the requisite basses being easier to find among Russians, in particular).

I also asked another older bass in the choir who is active in the music scene. He said that he would guess that men’s voices have gone up, but was also not sure.

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By: Larry Kestenbaum

Larry Kestenbaum — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 13:16:49 +0000

Nope, the decline in crime is across the board, affecting all age and race categories. Theories that are limited to specific groups or changes in the proportion between groups don’t get you very far.

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By: Santoculto

Santoculto — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 11:35:57 +0000

Criminallity decrease because reduction of afroamerican proportion in american population by immigrants specially in cities as Niu York.

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By: Did Falling Testosterone Affect Falling Crime? | No. Betteridge’s Law

Did Falling Testosterone Affect Falling Crime? | No. Betteridge’s Law — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 06:12:23 +0000

[…] Did Falling Testosterone Affect Falling Crime? […]

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By: K.

K. — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 18:28:20 +0000

My initial comment explicitly stated that the misinterpretation is very common even among feminists, and that I was only speaking about what I suspect to be the original intent of the phrase, so I have no idea where your apparent belief that you’re providing any sort of evidence against my initial assertion is coming from.

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By: Troy

Troy — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 11:19:21 +0000

Rehearsal was canceled on account of snow. I will try to remember to ask this week.

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By: Kyle Strand

Kyle Strand — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 06:54:22 +0000

Did you ask your choir director?

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By: Links for February 2015 - foreXiv

Links for February 2015 - foreXiv — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 22:32:57 +0000

[…] More from Scott: Did falling testosterone affect falling crime? […]

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By: Johannes

Johannes — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 17:04:27 +0000

As one commenter pointed out, any thesis that explains dropping crime rate in the US must also be applied to dropping crime rates on a global level. It appears that there is indeed a global drop in crime in many western countries as indicated by this graph:

http://www.bit.ly/17Thwh3

Note that the drop in murder rates in the US from 1994 doesn’t seem dramatic, neither on a relative level nor on an absolute level.
Also note that it appears that before murder rates dropped, they actually climbed for a number of years, especially if one takes into account the numbers from before 1990:

http://www.bit.ly/17Tjkqg

—
My own favourite thesis is the videogame thesis. Doom came out in December 1993, so that would fit nicely. If it turns out that this is indeed a factor, I would like to nominate John Carmack for a Nobel peace prize.

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