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One popular theory has linked declines in crime rates to the elimination of leaded gasoline. A study of New Zealanders suggests that this is not the case:
Lead exposure during childhood has been tied to a variety of developmental problems, but a new study suggests it may not be associated with higher odds of criminal behavior later in life.
The study set out to address a flaw in much of the previous research linking lead and crime: mainly that it's hard to determine how much of this connection might be explained by poverty and other socioeconomic circumstances that can influence both criminal activity and lead exposure. Researchers followed 553 people born in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1972 and 1973, when lead exposure was common among children of all economic backgrounds because of widespread use of leaded gasoline. All of the kids were tested for lead exposure when they were 11 years old, and the study team followed them until age 38 to see how many of them were convicted of crimes.
By the end of the study, 154 participants, or 28 percent, had at least one criminal conviction, the researchers report in JAMA Pediatrics. But the odds of this happening were barely influenced by the amount of lead exposure people had during childhood. Just being male had a stronger effect than lead levels, the researchers note. "Many studies have shown that higher exposure to lead could predict more criminal behavior, but our study actually found that there isn't a clear connection between the two," said lead author Amber Beckley, a researcher at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. The reason for the different results this time is that the current study found children from all walks of life had high lead levels, Beckley said by email.
The Need to Include Biological Variables in Prospective Longitudinal Studies of the Development of Criminal Behavior (open, DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2017.4237) (DX)
Association of Childhood Blood Lead Levels With Criminal Offending (open, DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2017.4005) (DX)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 29 2017, @03:52PM (7 children)
We don't need males anymore. Didn't you get the memo? We can make sperm from scratch now.
Proteins Can Now be Built From Scratch to "Do What We Want" [soylentnews.org]
The criminal patriarchy is ended forever.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 29 2017, @04:33PM (1 child)
Who would want to live in a place with no fucking crime? I have lived in such a place, reason there was no crime to be seen was because if you farted in the basement of your home, not only would the secret police have a record of it, but said record would describe in vivid detail what it smelled like.
Lack of crime is a symptom of something really fucking nefarious.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 29 2017, @04:45PM
So, you're saying; "huff lead, not farts"?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 29 2017, @06:08PM (4 children)
Just wait a little while, and we won't need females anymore either. Watch for artificial wombs and male pregnancy.
So the question is, if we don't need males, and we don't need females either, does that mean we'll all be Bots?
Hmm, Megaman X leads me to believe that bots still have gender. And sexuality. I don't know what to make of this. The only two things I've learned from this are 1.) avoid dating fembots involved in separatist movements and 2.) long hair makes boybots hot.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 29 2017, @06:25PM (1 child)
Anti-feminist wrong-thinking will not be tolerated.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday December 29 2017, @08:34PM
Show me on the doll where the big mean scary feminist touched you. It's okay, honey, we know it happens to boys too.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday December 29 2017, @06:25PM
Male pregnancy, while possible, is not going to be desirable in light of artificial wombs [theverge.com]. Complicated surgeries, possible uterine donation needed, possible risks to the fetus or incubator's health from hormonal imbalance. Once artificial wombs are perfected, you'll have a predictable and, ahem, reproducible process that may be able to cut down on miscarriages and premature birth [npr.org].
Male couples will eventually be able to have a boy or girl child using a mix of their own DNA with no outside DNA, used to create a synthetic embryo. Female couples would only be able to have a girl using their own DNA. But in both cases the couple could simply grab DNA from a donor or publicly available database. This is also the step in the process where you make it a designer™ baby that is genetically predisposed to be tall, intelligent, and attractive. Might not resemble you all that much in the end, but it could still be influenced by your DNA which can't be said for adopted children, and they'll have the right genes needed to become manipulative fintechs who can provide a cushy retirement for their "parents".
It really has nothing to do with bots/AI. We still (for now) have the advantage of powerfully evolved evolutionary processes that can't be easily mimicked by inorganic machines. Mind uploading also looks like a very difficult undertaking. Expect to see some kind of strong™ AI in the future, and possibly good™ brain-computer interfaces [wikipedia.org] that help turn a human into a cyborg entity that is much more capable than before.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday December 29 2017, @08:33PM
Also 3) don't interface with crazy. Iris was beautiful, but because of who she and Colonel were, they were both buggier than a Minnesota picnic ground in July.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...