Since the earliest days of intelligence testing, it’s been known that criminals average IQ’s around 90 (about 10 points below the North American average of 100). What’s interesting is that criminals also score 10 points below their non-delinquent siblings who grow up in the same home. Comparing criminals to their siblings is useful because it controls for so many of the socio-economic factors that are so often assumed to confound research on both crime and IQ.
Given that intelligence and morality are two different concepts, some may be surprised by the fact that criminals tend to have lower IQ’s. Indeed criminal geniuses such as the fictional Hannibal Lecter are a pop culture fixture. In the book, The g Factor by Arthur Jensen, three hypotheses are discussed:
1) Criminals have lower IQ’s because they’re not smart enough to achieve success through conventional avenues and thus must stoop to unethical methods.
2) Criminals have lower IQ’s because crimes are often impulsive, and so people who think through the long-term consequences (for themselves and the victims) are more likely to avoid crime.
3) Criminals have lower IQ’s because they’re not smart enough to understand why their crimes are wrong.
Pumpkin Person would like to propose a fourth hypothesis. Criminals have lower IQ’s because some of the same factor(s) that stunted their intellectual development, also stunted their moral development, since both are a function of the brain.
A popular hypothesis among laymen is that criminals actually don’t have lower IQ’s, they just appear to because all the smart ones get away, but this idea was dismissed by Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein in the book The Bell Curve. They argued that there are not enough unsolved crimes for there to be a secret group of high IQ criminals and that among convicted criminals, the duller one commit more crimes, and used both these facts to dismiss the high IQ criminal theory.
However there’s also this saying: Behind every great fortune, there’s a great crime. Perhaps the smartest criminals conceal their crimes so well, we don’t even know one’s been committed.
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Amongst the general population of criminals, there will be a drag downwards on IQ. Most crimes are not particularly well thought-out, and it’s not hard to see that higher-IQ individuals would rather not risk their freedom [in civilized society where they are locked up] for petty profit.
However I imagine at the upper end of the income distribution exists a large number of individuals who are rule benders [as opposed to rule breakers]. These people distort the economic/political scenario to reap large profits. What proportion of the total rich they constitute is up for debate, but it’s quite clear that they are rather above average in the IQ distribution.
You are misstaken, therefore you must be below average IQ wise. My Iq is and always has been 128. I committed crime as a teenager 18-19.no thought given to a plan. Prison is where one learns how to plan provides negative social connections. The agenda behind this whole line of thinking is based on race and class. It’s the environment stupid.
If it is true and I believe it is,one can increase there iq by a few points with education. The Jews are a good example. The average Jew is known to have an IQ of 90. Educated Jews claim iqs of 110. When a group is deprived of educational opportunities the iq drops. It’s not about middle class and poor. We were lied to by our society because we were white . We’re were poor but our whiteness made us middle class by default.the high iq generally get away with crime mainly because most are middle class or above. The choice of crimes and whom they Rob is how they continue to get away with it. They had the ability to find me,a rarity iq128 imprisoned. They claimed to be there to help me, however they robbed me of my intellectual property values after the sold it in the 10’s of millions. This was 1980 so you might imagine the value today.
They are smart in that they pick a victim that believe the lie that they were there to help. It is the environment plan and simple. Otherwise your clam is the darker your Skype n the lower you iq. And if that sentence need explaining you are really dumb.
You have no edit so a few word are wrong . It’s not a juction of iq. It’s a function of cheap tec.
“They argued that there are not enough unsolved crimes for there to be a secret group of high IQ criminals and that among convicted criminals, the duller one commit more crimes, and used both these facts to dismiss the high IQ criminal theory.”
If they were good at getting away with it, you wouldn’t even know that there crimes existed to be unsolved
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