What Are the Implications of the Free Will Debate for Individuals and Society Alfred Mele

Notebook per

What Are the Implications of the Free Will Debate for Individuals and Society

Alfred Mele

Citation (APA): Mele, A. (2014). What Are the Implications of the Free Will Debate for Individuals and Society [Kindle Android version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com

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Parte introduttiva

Nota - Posizione 2

l esperimento di libet limite 1 modi di decidere: in libet prendiamo decisioni elementari a caso e quando vogliamo. non sono certo le condizioni in cui scegliamo nella vita quotidiana: divorzi carriera... ci sono decisioni diverse prese con metodi diversi limite 2 attività neuronale: libet ci dice che esiste un attività neuronale che precede la scelta. ma questa attività prob. innesca la coscoenza senza decidere alcunchè 2 definizioni di free will limite 3: previsione prob. libertà. gli studi cprevedono al 60 le ns decisioni. qs non è sufficiente ad eliminare freewill: free&previsione credere in la e comportamenti sociali: chi ci crede è più felice e si comporta meglio

Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 2

What Are the Implications of the Free Will Debate for Individuals and Society? By Alfred Mele

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Does free will exist? Current interest in that question is fueled by news reports suggesting that neuroscientists have proved it doesn’t.

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NEWS

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One major plank in a well-known neuroscientific argument for the nonexistence of free will is the claim that participants in various experiments make their decisions unconsciously.

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INCONSCIO

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The other part of the evidence comes from participants’ reports on when they first became aware of their decisions.

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QUANDO

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the typical sequence of events is as follows: first, there is the brain activity the scientists focus on, then the participants become aware of decisions (or intentions or urges) to act, and then they act, flexing a wrist or pushing a button, for example.

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ESPERIMENTO TIPO

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1. In various experiments, participants decide unconsciously. 2. Only consciously made decisions can be freely made.

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CONCLUSIONI

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3. The way participants decide in these experiments is the way people always decide.

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ASSUNTO

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Participants in these experiments are instructed to perform a simple action whenever they want and then report on when they first became aware of an urge, intention, or decision to perform it.

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SEMPLICITÀ

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The experimental setting is very different from a situation in which you’re carefully weighing pros and cons

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SETTING

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we can’t be confident that all decisions are made in the same way.

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STRUTTURA

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the brain activity that experimenters are measuring several hundred milliseconds or several seconds in advance of the action gives rise to additional brain activity that is a conscious decision, and that conscious decision plays a part in producing the action – the flexing, clicking, or pressing. There is no good reason to believe that the early brain activity (measured in seconds with fMRI and in milliseconds in the other studies) is correlated with a decision that is made – unconsciously – at that time.

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BRAIN ACTIVITY E CORRELATION

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According to a modest conception of free will, as long as you’re able to make rational, informed, decisions when you’re not being subjected to undue force and also are capable of acting on the basis of some of those decisions, you have free will

Nota - Posizione 46

FREE WILL

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According to a more ambitious view, something crucial must be added to these abilities: If you have free will, then alternative decisions are open to you in a way requiring that the natural laws that govern your brain activity sometimes give you at most a probability of deciding one way and a probability of deciding another way.

Nota - Posizione 48

POSSIBILITÀ APERTE

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Most people assume that the future is open in a certain way. As they see it, not only don’t we know now exactly what we will do next week, but it also is not determined

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INDETERMINISMO

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In the fMRI study I mentioned, scientists were able to predict with 60% accuracy,

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PREDIZIONE: 60

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After all, the evidence leaves a 40% chance that the participant would press the other button.

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Believers in ambitious free will thrive on probabilities of action, and that’s exactly what we find in these studies.

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CONFERMA

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lowering people’s confidence in the existence of free will increases bad behavior

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STRAUSS

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belief in free will promotes personal well-being.

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When do we become aware of our decisions and why does that matter? How is consciousness related to free will?

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Can we make free decisions unconsciously?

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How much self- understanding does free will require?

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Is free compatible or incompatible with determinism

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Is it possible, in principle, for science to prove that free will is an illusion?

Tre esperimenti che confermano il ruolo preponderante della coscienza

In one experiment, the participants were women who wanted to do a breast self-examination during the next month.  The women were divided into two groups.  There was only one difference in what they were instructed to do.  One group was asked to decide during the experiment on a place and time to do the examination the next month, and the other group wasn't.  The first group wrote down what they decided before the experiment ended and turned the note in.  Obviously, they were conscious of what they were writing down.  They had conscious implementation intentions.

The results were impressive.  All of the women given the implementation intention instruction did complete a breast exam the next month, and all but one of them did it at basically the time and place they decided on in advance.  But only 53 percent of the women from the other group performed a breast exam the following month.

In another experiment, participants were informed of the benefits of vigorous exercise.  Again, there were two groups.  One group was asked to decide during the experiment on a place and time for twenty minutes of exercise the next week, and the other group wasn't given this instruction.  The vast majority - 91 percent - of those in the implementation intention group exercised the following week, compared to only 39 percent of the other group.

In a third experiment, the participants were recovering drug addicts who would be looking for jobs soon.  All of them were supposed to write resumes by the end of the day.  One group was asked in the morning to decide on a place and time later that day to carry out that task.  The other group was asked to decide on a place and time to eat lunch.  None of the people in the second group wrote a resume by the end of the day, but 80 percent of the first group did.

ADHD

Like the late great Thomas Szasz, my objection is that labels like ADHD medicalizepeople's choices - partly to stigmatize, but mostly to excuse.  In his words, "The business of psychiatry is to provide society with excuses disguised as diagnoses, and with coercions justified as treatments."

PREMESSA: [A] large fraction of what is called mental illness is nothing other than unusual preferences

these negative adjectives are thinly disguised normative judgments, not scientific or medical claims. Why should mental health professionals be exempt from economists' standard critique? 

The American Psychiatric Association's (APA) 1973 vote to take homosexuality off the list of mental illnesses is a microcosm of the overall field (Bayer 1981). The medical science of homosexuality had not changed; there were no new empirical tests that falsified the standard view.

Overall, the most natural way to formalize ADHD in economic terms is as a high disutility of work combined with a strong taste for variety. Undoubtedly, a person who dislikes working will be more likely to fail to 'finish school work, chores or duties in the workplace' and be 'reluctant to engage in tasks that require sustained mental effort'. Similarly, a person with a strong taste for variety will be 'easily distracted 

Il piacere al centro. No one accuses a boy diagnosed with ADHD of forgetting to play videogames.

Another misconception about Szasz is that he denies the connection between physical and mental activity. The problem is that 'chemical imbalance' is a moral judgment masquerading as a medical one.

A closely related misconception is that Szasz ignores medical evidence that many mental illnesses can be effectively treated. Once again, though, the ability of drugs to change brain chemistry and thereby behavior does nothing to show that the initial behavior was 'sick'. If alcohol makes people less shy, is that evidence that shyness is a disease?

The Price of Cold Turkey

Contingency management (CM) is a strategy used in alcohol and other drug (AOD) abuse treatment to encourage positive behavior change (e.g., abstinence) in patients by providing reinforcing consequences when patients meet treatment goals and by withholding those consequences or providing punitive measures when patients engage in the undesired behavior (e.g., drinking). For example, positive consequences for abstinence may include receipt of vouchers that are exchangeable for retail goods, whereas negative consequences for drinking may include withholding of vouchers or an unfavorable report to a parole officer.

I wish they chose a more transparent name, but the results of this well-developed literature are striking even to me. There have been lots of good experiments where addicts are randomly assigned to either the experimental group, where they getconditional rewards for abstinence, and a control group, where they get unconditionalrewards. Paying people to ditch their favorite vice is amazingly effective

Economists have done a number of studies showing that the demand for drugs usually considered highly addictive is still fairly elastic. The CM literature goes a bit further: Instead of estimating elasticity, it estimates the total consumer's surplus of the marginal addict, by seeing how much you have to pay people to reduce their consumption to zero.

As might be expected, psychiatrists look at these results and see only another tool for "helping" people who probably don't want to be helped in the first place. In contrast, I look at these results and see further evidence that addiction is not a "disease," but a free choice.

Abusi infantili

1. Never.  As Robert Filmer infamously argued, parents are within their rights to treat their children however they please.

2. Only if the parent has perpetrated a severe crime (attempted murder, rape, etc.) against the child.

3. If the parent is likely to perpetrate a severe crime against the child.

4. If loss of custody increases the expected welfare of (parent + child).  Or in other words, if the gain to the child exceeds the loss to the parent.

5. If the loss of custody increases the expected welfare of the child.  Notice: On this standard, losses to the parent don't count.

6. If the loss of custody increases the welfare of children in general.  Notice: On this standard, a child could be taken from his parents even if he'd be worse off as a result - as long as the deterrent effect on other potentially abusive parents made up the difference.

7. If the loss of custody increases expected utility of all non-child-abusers.  Notice: This standard doesn't just count the deterrent effect on potentially abusive parents; it also counts third parties' desire for retribution against abusive parents.

8. Zero tolerance: Loss of custody is the "mandatory minimum" sentence for any clear-cut act of child abuse.

I could be wrong, but I'd guess that current U.S. policy is somewhere between #3 and #4.  But where is the morally right place to draw the line?

Somehow I doubt that many people will take position #8.  It's expressively appealing, but even people who hate economics can't easily evade the fact that a kid's imperfect parents are usually his least-bad alternative.  But how much lower are you willing to go?

The Economics of Insanity Bryan Caplan

Notebook per

The Economics of Insanity

Bryan Caplan

Citation (APA): Caplan, B. (2016). The Economics of Insanity [Kindle Android version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com

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Parte introduttiva

Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 2

The Economics of Insanity By Bryan Caplan

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1. An Example

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TITOLO

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A man climbs up to the top of a tower and starts shooting into a crowd. If captured alive, even if he demurs, there can be little doubt that someone will try to declare him "insane." A few lame efforts to correlate his behavior with his brain might be made, but ultimately, the issue will be put thusly: "You would HAVE TO BE INSANE to climb up a tower and fire into a crowd."

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SULLA TORRE

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2. Insanity as Extremely Heterogeneous Preferences

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TITOLO

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Is there anything about the extreme tails of the distribution that makes them in any way less "rational" in the economic sense?

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GUSTI CODE E RAZIONALITÀ

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3. Insanity as Intransitivity?

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TITOLO

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One might think that the putatively insane exhibit more intransitivities in their preferences, but I doubt

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FOLLE=LUNATICO? FOLLE=OSSESSO?

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4. Insanity as Systematically Biased Belief

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TITOLO

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Another alternative is that insanity in economic terms is not weird preferences, but systematically biased beliefs about the world.

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ERRORE SISTEMATICO

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But it seems like plenty of people regarded as perfectly sane have systematically biased beliefs.

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TIPICO ANCHE DEI SANI

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Less controversially, well-established scientific conclusions - from evolution to the age of the earth - are rejected by a majority of the U.S. population.

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ETÀ DELLA TERRA

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In any case, it seems that many of the most notorious lunatics had a quite sound grasp of the world which enabled them to carry out their plots.

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LUCIDA FOLLIA

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5. Insanity as Unusual Biological Incentives and Constraints

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TITOLO

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Suppose your metabolism is such that if you eat until you feel full, you will be morbidly obese. Does this make obesity a disease? Or do you just have different biological incentives and constraints than most people?

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OBESITÀ E MALATTIA

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Thinness is still in your opportunity set, it just requires more effort

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SFORZO POSSIBILE

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6. Insanity as Brain Disease

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TITOLO

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it should be pointed out that it is extremely rare that insane behavior and brain states can be linked in such a way that everyone who e.g. has brain state X drinks too much.

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NN CORRELABILI CERVELLO E COMP.

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I have yet to hear a brain researcher discuss endogeneity problems. What's the endogeneity problem? Well, if the brain state correlates with insane behavior, one may fairly ask: does the brain state cause the insane behavior, or does the insane behavior cause the brain state? Correlation alone does nothing to resolve this problem.

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NEUROSCIENZE:PROBLEMA ENDOGENO

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7. Conclusion

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TITOLO

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First, a lot of putative insanity is nothing more or less than the extreme tails of a preference distribution with high variance. Second, "insane" preferences seem to be as transitive as anyone else's. Third, some putatively insane people may have systematically biased beliefs, but so do lots of people regarded as perfectly sane. Fourth, a lot of the well-established links between biology and "behavorial disorders" boil down to unusual incentives and constraints. In sum, while other disciplines regard insanity as a puzzle to be explained, the economic way of thinking inclines me to wonder what the puzzle is.

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SOLUZIONE DELL ECONOMISTA: LA FOLLIA NN ESISTE

La rieducazione del criminale

Una società ideale rieduca i condannati? Deve farlo? Perché? Come? Funziona? Per abbozzare una risposta meglio partire dall’inizio.

I cattivi vanno scovati e puniti. In questo modo avremo meno cattivi in circolazione: a nessuno piace essere castigato. Si chiama “effetto deterrenza”, costituisce da sempre la funzione cardine della pena della pena.

Purtroppo, non sempre riusciamo a trovarli. Fortunatamente c’è una soluzione: possiamo inasprire le punizioni in modo da compensare la possibilità di farla franca.

Ma non è tutto: scovare i criminali è costoso. La soluzione ottima è non gettare molte risorse in attività costose: licenziamo la polizia e aumentiamo le pene, l’ “effetto deterrenza” resta garantito e le risorse risparmiate possono essere investite in nobili cause.

Nella società ideale “effetto deterrenza” e “rieducazione” coincidono: il criminale, dopo aver fatto i suoi conti, non pecca più.

Il ragionamento in sé non fa una piega. E certo, non è mio, è di Gary Becker, c’ha preso pure il Nobel.

Purtroppo, nella realtà le cose non sembrano funzionare in questo modo, i criminali sono un po’ come i bambini: poco interessati al futuro, specie se lontano. E le eventuali pene sono collocate nel futuro, a volte molto lontano.

Chi ha problemi a gestire le emozioni e a frenare gli impulsi calcola male le conseguenze delle sue azioni.

Oltre una certa soglia esacerbare le pene riempie le prigioni piuttosto che creare deterrenza, e le prigioni sono l’ Università del crimine.

I criminali sono come bambini e nessuno di noi adotterebbe la soluzione economicamente ottimale per i bambini: meno controllo (con relativi risparmi) e punizioni più dure. E’ il modo migliore per crescere un criminale!

Di solito l’approccio coi bambini è diverso: regole chiare e coerenti con punizioni immediate a chi sgarra.

L’immediatezza serve a far cogliere l’associazione tra marachella e castigo.

La chiarezza serve a far sapere con certezza cos’è una marachella.

La coerenza serve a massimizzare la conoscenza con il minimo di esperienza (se so perché vengo punito quando rubo i biscotti so anche che verrò punito se rubo la torta, non c’è bisogno di sperimentarlo in prima persona).

I criminali sono bambinoni, per loro contare fino a dieci è decisivo: quando lo fanno i delitti si dimezzano. Ma se sono dei bambinoni forse con loro funziona la soluzione idonea per l’infanzia: punizioni lievi e regole chiare, coerenti e con applicazione immediata.

Ma come si traducono in concreto le considerazioni fatte finora? Per esempio così: leggi ben scritte favoriscono la chiarezza. Più polizia favorisce la coerenza. Migliori tribunali favoriscono l’immediatezza. Contare fino a dieci (terapia comportamentale) contrasta la recidiva.

Potremmo chiamare tutto cio’ “rieducazione” del criminale nella società ideale.

Quando uno pensa alla funzione rieducativa della pena pensa di solito a lezioncine civiche e reinserimenti. In realtà i criminali non sono proprio dei bambini, non trasciniamo troppo oltre la similitudine, sono in realtà dei “bambinoni”: e come si rieduca un “bambinone”? Ripeto:

1) Con leggi più chiare.

2) Con più polizia nelle strade.

3) Con tribunali più celeri.

4) Insegnando a contare fino a dieci.

Political Economy of Happiness Bryan Caplan

Notebook per

Political Economy of Happiness

Bryan Caplan

Citation (APA): Caplan, B. (2016). Political Economy of Happiness [Kindle Android version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com

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Parte introduttiva

Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 2

Political Economy of Happiness By Bryan Caplan

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Loewenstein � s challenge: � How could anybody study happiness and not find himself leaning left

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PROVOCAZIONE

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boosting the living standards of those already comfortable, such as through lower taxes, does little to improve their levels of well-being, whereas raising the living standards of the impoverished makes an enormous difference.

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SONO I POVERI CE CONTANO

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Finding #1: Most poor people are happy!

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POVERI E FELICI

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Finding #2: Objective material well-being has relatively little effect on happiness compared to marriage quality, subjective job satisfaction,

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BENI MATERIALI MATRIMONIO LAVORO

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Finding #3: People have fairly fixed � hedonic set-points. � � Changes in external circumstances usually only have temporary effects on happiness.

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FIXED

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E.g. studies of lottery winners

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LOTTERIE

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Finding #4: Gratitude matters. � People who appreciate what they have � instead of complaining about how other people have more or took advantage of them � are happier.

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PIAGNISTEO

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E.g. Alesina et al find that inequality reduces happiness in Europe;

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ALESINA

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Finding #5: Employment matters a lot more than income for happiness.

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LAVORO E REDDITO

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Finding #6: Absolute poverty � the kind you see outside the First World - does make people unhappy. � So preventing absolutely poor foreigners from immigrating because they might � undermine the welfare state � that protects relatively poor natives is demented happiness policy.

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POVERTÀ ASSOLUTA E IMMIGRAZIONE

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Finding #7: Religion and marriage increase happiness. � Do leftist happiness researchers want the government to encourage religion and marriage?

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RELIGIONE R MATRIMONIO

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Finding #8: Communism creates lasting misery, even adjusting for income.

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COMUNISMO

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Some happiness researchers use their results to argue for government intervention on the grounds that people have misconceptions

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PATERNALISMO

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happier making their own mistakes than being pushed around for their own good.

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OB2: CONTROLLO E FELICITÀ

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Under democracy, there is a simpler objection: If people have misconceptions about happiness, why should we expect policy to improve

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OB2: LA DEMOCRAZIA NN MIGLIORA

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voters have weak incentives to overcome their misconceptions, and politicians have strong incentives to cater to voters � misconceptions.

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OB3: PUBLIC CHOICE

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Main happiness benefit of economic growth has been eliminating extreme poverty and increasing population.

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CRESCITA

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The main thing rich countries can do to increase the number of people who do not live in extreme poverty is allow more immigration.

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IMMIGRAZIONE

Lead America Real Criminal Element

Notebook per

Lead America039s Real Criminal Element Mother Jones

riccardo-mariani@libero.it

Citation (APA): riccardo-mariani@libero.it. (2016). Lead America039s Real Criminal Element Mother Jones [Kindle Android version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com

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Parte introduttiva

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Lead: America's Real Criminal Element Kevin Drum

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TITOLO

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Throughout the campaign, Giuliani embraced a theory of crime fighting called "broken windows," popularized a decade earlier by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in an influential article in The Atlantic. "If a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired," they observed, "all the rest of the windows will soon be broken." So too, tolerance of small crimes would create a vicious cycle

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BROKEN WINDOW

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BROKEN WINDOWS

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The results were dramatic. In 1996, the New York Times reported that crime had plunged for the third straight year, the sharpest drop since the end of Prohibition. Since 1993, rape rates had dropped 17 percent, assault 27 percent, robbery 42 percent, and murder an astonishing 49 percent.

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RISULTATI

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John DiIulio warned that the echo of the baby boom would soon produce a demographic bulge of millions of young males that he famously dubbed "juvenile super-predators." Other criminologists nodded along. But even though the demographic bulge came right on schedule, crime continued to drop. And drop.

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DIIULIO

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And yet, doubts remained. For one thing, violent crime actually peaked in New York City in 1990, four years before the Giuliani-Bratton era. By the time they took office, it had already dropped 12 percent. Second, and far more puzzling, it's not just New York that has seen a big drop in crime. In city after city, violent crime peaked in the early '90s and then began a steady and spectacular decline.

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DUBBI

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Dallas' has fallen 70 percent. Newark: 74 percent. Los Angeles: 78 percent.

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There are, it turns out, plenty of theories.

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TEORIE

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it's mostly a matter of economics: Crime goes down when the economy is booming and goes up when it's in a slump. Unfortunately, the theory doesn't seem to hold water— for example, crime rates have continued to drop recently despite our prolonged downturn.

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CICLO ECONOMICO

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Another chapter suggested that crime drops in big cities were mostly a reflection of the crack epidemic of the '80s finally burning itself out.

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CRACK CYCLE

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Another chapter told a story of demographics: As the number of young men increases, so does crime. Unfortunately for this theory, the number of young men increased during the '90s, but crime dropped anyway.

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DEMOGRAFIA

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On guns and gun control. On family. On race. On parole and probation. On the raw number of police officers. It seemed as if everyone had a pet theory. In 1999, economist Steven Levitt, later famous as the coauthor of Freakonomics, teamed up with John Donohue to suggest that crime dropped because of Roe v. Wade; legalized abortion, they argued, led to fewer unwanted babies, which meant fewer maladjusted and violent young men two decades later.

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FAMIGLIA RAZZA PAROLE POLIZIA ABORTO

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After all, they all happened at the same time.

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UNCONTROLLED

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Jim Manzi in his recent book Uncontrolled, econometrics consistently fails to explain most of the variation in crime rates. After reviewing 122 known field tests, Manzi found that only 20 percent demonstrated positive results for specific crime-fighting strategies, and none of those positive results were replicated in follow-up studies.

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MANZI

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More prisons might help control crime, more cops might help, and better policing might help. But the evidence is thin for any of these as the main cause.

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MAIN CAUSE

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Experts often suggest that crime resembles an epidemic. But what kind? Karl Smith, a professor of public economics and government at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has a good rule of thumb for categorizing epidemics: If it spreads along lines of communication, he says, the cause is information.

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KARL SMITH EPIDEMIE INFO

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Think Bieber Fever.

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Think influenza. If it spreads out like a fan, the cause is an insect. Think malaria.

Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 55

But if it's everywhere, all at once— as both the rise of crime in the '60s and '70s and the fall of crime in the '90s seemed to be— the cause is a molecule.

Nota - Posizione 56

EPIDEMIA MOLECOLATE

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Well, here's one possibility: Pb( CH2CH3) 4.

Nota - Posizione 57

PIOMBO

Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 57

Rick Nevin

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This has been a topic of intense study because of the growing body of research linking lead exposure in small children with a whole raft of complications later in life, including lower IQ, hyperactivity, behavioral problems, and learning disabilities.

Nota - Posizione 60

IQ COMPOTAMENTI

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The biggest source of lead in the postwar era, it turns out, wasn't paint. It was leaded gasoline. And if you chart the rise and fall of atmospheric lead caused by the rise and fall of leaded gasoline

Nota - Posizione 64

GASOLIO

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Lead emissions from tailpipes rose steadily from the early '40s through the early '70s, nearly quadrupling over that period. Then, as unleaded gasoline began to replace leaded gasoline, emissions plummeted.

Nota - Posizione 65

PERIODO

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Gasoline lead may explain as much as 90 percent of the rise and fall of violent crime over the past half century.

Nota - Posizione 66

90%

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The only thing different was the time period: Crime rates rose dramatically in the '60s through the '80s, and then began dropping steadily starting in the early '90s.

Nota - Posizione 68

XIODO

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if you add a lag time of 23 years, lead emissions from automobiles explain 90 percent of the variation in violent crime in America.

Nota - Posizione 71

23 LAG

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correlation between two curves isn't all that impressive, econometrically speaking. Sales of vinyl LPs rose in the postwar period too, and then declined in the '80s and '90s.

Nota - Posizione 79

VINILE

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In states where consumption of leaded gasoline declined slowly, crime declined slowly. Where it declined quickly, crime declined quickly.

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SLOWLY QUICKLY

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Meanwhile, Nevin had kept busy as well, and in 2007 he published a new paper looking at crime trends around the world (PDF). This way, he could make sure the close match he'd found between the lead curve and the crime curve wasn't just a coincidence.

Nota - Posizione 94

MONDO

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Nevin collected lead data and crime data for Australia and found a close match. Ditto for Canada. And Great Britain and Finland and France and Italy and New Zealand and West Germany. Every time, the two curves fit each other astonishingly well.

Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 98

researcher Howard Mielke published a paper with demographer Sammy Zahran on the correlation of lead and crime at the city level.

Nota - Posizione 100

CITY LEVEL

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We now have studies at the international level, the national level, the state level, the city level, and even the individual level.

Nota - Posizione 103

LEVEL

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childhood blood lead levels are consistently associated with higher adult arrest rates for violent crimes. All of these studies tell the same story: Gasoline lead is responsible for a good share of the rise and fall of violent crime

Nota - Posizione 106

BIMBI

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For example, murder rates have always been higher in big cities than in towns and small cities. We're so used to this that it seems unsurprising, but Nevin points out that it might actually have a surprising explanation— because big cities have lots of cars

Nota - Posizione 110

CITTÀ E CAMPAGNA

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Today, homicide rates are similar in cities of all sizes.

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Only gasoline lead, with its dramatic rise and fall following World War II, can explain the equally dramatic rise and fall in violent crime.

Nota - Posizione 117

PRE GUERRA

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But there's another reason to take the lead hypothesis seriously, and it might be the most compelling one of all: Neurological research is demonstrating that lead's effects are even more appalling, more permanent, and appear at far lower levels than we ever thought. For starters, it turns out that childhood lead exposure at nearly any level can seriously and permanently reduce IQ.

Nota - Posizione 121

NEUROLOGIA

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cell death, in the brain,

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High childhood exposure damages a part of the brain linked to aggression control. The impact is greater among boys.

Nota - Posizione 131

AGGRESSIVITÀ

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Put simply, the network connections within the brain become both slower and less coordinated.

Nota - Posizione 135

CONNESSIONI

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A second study found that high exposure to lead during childhood was linked to a permanent loss of gray matter in the prefrontal cortex— a

Nota - Posizione 137

LOBI

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lead affects precisely the areas of the brain "that make us most human."

Nota - Posizione 140

UMANI

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Other recent studies link even minuscule blood lead levels with attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder.

Nota - Posizione 145

ADHD

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Why has the lead/ crime connection been almost completely ignored in the criminology community?

Nota - Posizione 155

MISTERO

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James Q. Wilson— father of the broken-windows theory, and the dean of the criminology community— had begun to accept that lead probably played a meaningful role

Nota - Posizione 161

WILSON

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Mark Kleiman, a public policy professor at the University of California-Los Angeles who has studied promising methods of controlling crime, suggests that because criminologists are basically sociologists, they look for sociological explanations, not medical ones.

Nota - Posizione 164

SOCIOLOGI NN MEDICI

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My own sense is that interest groups probably play a crucial role: Political conservatives want to blame the social upheaval of the '60s for the rise in crime that followed.

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CONSERVATORI

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Police unions have reasons for crediting its decline to an increase in the number of cops.

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POLIZIA

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Prison guards like the idea that increased incarceration is the answer.

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GUARDIE

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Drug warriors want the story to be about drug policy.

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DRUG

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More generally, we all have a deep stake in affirming the power of deliberate human action.

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AZIONE INTENZIONALE E CASO

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there's nothing more to be done on that front. Right? Wrong. As it turns out, tetraethyl lead is like a zombie that refuses to die. Our cars may be lead-free today, but they spent more than 50 years spewing lead from their tailpipes, and all that lead had to go somewhere. And it did: It settled permanently into the soil that we walk on, grow our food in, and let our kids play around.

Nota - Posizione 175

OGGI

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"I know people who have move into gentrified neighborhoods and renovate everything. They create huge hazards for their kids."

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GENTRIFICATION

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Paint hasn't played a big role in our story so far, but that's only because it didn't play a big role in the rise of crime in the postwar era and its subsequent fall. Unlike gasoline lead, lead paint was a fairly uniform problem during this period,

Nota - Posizione 189

VERNICI

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the Baltimore City Paper asked him why so little progress had been made recently on combating the lead-poisoning problem. "Number one," he said without hesitation, "it's a black problem." But it turns out that this is an outdated idea.

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BLACK PROBLEM

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Another reason that lead doesn't get the attention it deserves is that too many people think the problem was solved years ago.

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GIÀ RISOLTO

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And while some scholars conclude that the prison boom had an effect on crime, recent research suggests that rising incarceration rates suffer from diminishing returns: Putting more criminals behind bars is useful up to a point,

Nota - Posizione 225

HIGHT INCARCERATION

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So this is the choice before us: We can either attack crime at its root by getting rid of the remaining lead in our environment, or we can continue our current policy of waiting 20 years and then locking up all the lead-poisoned kids who have turned into criminals.

Nota - Posizione 231

RADICI E FRONDE