Comment by Daniel_Newby | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Daniel_Newby | Hacker News Reader

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Really? You see no connection between poor impulse control/low intelligence and pointless violence? The research in fact shows the former to be the only significant predictor of the latter. (Parent socioeconomic status, culture, and education have very little additional predictive power once impulsivity/intelligence are taken into account.)

I also take issue with gangs being "responsible" for traumatising cities. In U.S. cities, it is common for a successful district to share a border with a gangland district. Usually the crime abruptly decreases at the border of the successful district. The difference is not gang member presence—no repulsor field keeps them from walking across the street. The difference is that the police in the gangland district are not allowed to stop them because that would be "racist".

I associate this sort of writing with little girls dotting their 'i's with love hearts and therefore childhood innocence and struggle to connect that with gang violence.

In re "responsible" I think you're interpreting what I said a little strangely. Gangs are behind serious adult crimes, and as I said I just find it weird that these serious crimes are caused by people decorating their letters like little kids. Nobody is blaming all society's ills on gangs.

Gangland is a lot like a school for 12 year olds. A group of insecure, unconfident people are brought together as a matter of policy. They are rewarded for doing things together as a matter of policy (drug money, media adulation). Attempts at self-policing are shut down by the authorities.

Is it that surprising that the cultures are so similar?

If you read the last paragraph in the OP, you'll notice that officer has "appreciation" for their intelligence. It's very short-sighted to assume that they are of low intelligence or have poor impulse control. Being born into poverty provides a very limited means of social mobility, so joining a gang is often a rational, and intelligent, decision.

Impulsivity predicts much of criminality. The research says that "Have you ever gone to jail?" is a fairly sensitive test for ADHD. Low IQ also predicts criminality, but impulsivity also predicts dramatically lower IQ, so the arrow of causality is unknown. The people being convicted by the codebreaker are probably quite neurologically different than the average person.

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