Angela
Elite member
- Messages
- 21,823
- Reaction score
- 12,329
- Points
- 113
- Ethnic group
- Italian
I'd say the answer is yes. See:
http://www.economist.com/news/speci...nd-mayhem?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/ofmenandmayhem
"North-east Nigeria, where Boko Haram operates, is largely Islamic, but it is also poor, despite Nigeria’s oil wealth, and corruptly governed. It has lots of young men, many of them living hand to mouth. It is also polygamous: 40% of married women share a husband. Rich old men have multiple spouses; poor young men are left single, sex-starved and without a stable family life. Small wonder some are tempted to join Boko Haram."
"Beware the youth bulge
Globally, the people who fight in wars or commit violent crimes are nearly all young men. Henrik Urdal of the Harvard Kennedy School looked at civil wars and insurgencies around the world between 1950 and 2000, controlling for such things as how rich, democratic or recently violent countries were, and found that a “youth bulge” made them more strife-prone. When 15-24-year-olds made up more than 35% of the adult population—as is common in developing countries—the risk of conflict was 150% higher than with a rich-country age profile."
This is true. It's one of the reasons for the dip in crime in recent years in the U.S. We had such a youth bulge, which has now aged; the dip wasn't just because of tougher law enforcement, although that definitely helped, in my opinion.
"If young men are jobless or broke, they make cheap recruits for rebel armies.
"And if their rulers are crooked or cruel, they will have cause to rebel. Youth unemployment in Arab states is twice the global norm. The autocrats who were toppled in the Arab Spring were all well past pension age, had been in charge for decades and presided over kleptocracies.
Christopher Cramer of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London cautions that there is no straightforward causal link between unemployment and violence. It is not simply a lack of money that spurs young men to rebel, he explains; it is more that having a job is a source of status and identity.
Throughout history, men have killed men roughly 97 times more often than women have killed women. The reasons are biological. In all cultures, the appetite for mayhem peaks in the late teens or early 20s, “just when males are competing more fiercely for mating opportunities, as in other mammals”, notes Matt Ridley in “The Evolution of Everything”. In “Homicide”, Martin Daly and Margo Wilson put it like this: “Any creature that is recognisably on track towards complete reproductive failure must somehow expend effort, often at risk of death, to try to improve its present life trajectory.” Wars, alas, give young men a chance to kill potential rivals (ie, other men) and seize or rape women. From Islamic State to the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, rebel forces often let their troops treat females as spoils."
This may be true, but it of course doesn't make it right. I'm never very sympathetic to arguments that my hormones made me do it, whether it's a male or a female proposing it. The exception would be something severe and quantifiable like post-partum depression. Otherwise, it's about on par with if I don't have it I'll get ill. Boo hoo. For what it's worth, brain imaging shows that most teen-age brains are similar to the brains of adults with bi-polar disorder. That's not a good enough excuse either. Similar isn't the same.
"The polygamy powder keg
Any system that produces a surplus of single men is likely to be unstable. Polygamous societies suffer “higher rates of murder, theft, rape, social disruption, kidnapping (especially of females), sexual slavery and prostitution,” note Joseph Henrich, Robert Boyd and Peter Richerson in “The Puzzle of Monogamy”. The Mormon church banned polygamy in 1890 but some breakaway enclaves still practise it. They solve the problem of surplus males by expelling teenage boys from their isolated communities for minor infractions. In southern Utah your correspondent met Kevin (he would not give his surname), who was thrown out of such a sect at 17 for playing video games. He said it was odd how the elders almost never expelled girls."
It's not just polygamy, though. The selective abortion practiced in China and India has the same effect.
http://www.economist.com/news/speci...nd-mayhem?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/ofmenandmayhem
"North-east Nigeria, where Boko Haram operates, is largely Islamic, but it is also poor, despite Nigeria’s oil wealth, and corruptly governed. It has lots of young men, many of them living hand to mouth. It is also polygamous: 40% of married women share a husband. Rich old men have multiple spouses; poor young men are left single, sex-starved and without a stable family life. Small wonder some are tempted to join Boko Haram."
"Beware the youth bulge
Globally, the people who fight in wars or commit violent crimes are nearly all young men. Henrik Urdal of the Harvard Kennedy School looked at civil wars and insurgencies around the world between 1950 and 2000, controlling for such things as how rich, democratic or recently violent countries were, and found that a “youth bulge” made them more strife-prone. When 15-24-year-olds made up more than 35% of the adult population—as is common in developing countries—the risk of conflict was 150% higher than with a rich-country age profile."
This is true. It's one of the reasons for the dip in crime in recent years in the U.S. We had such a youth bulge, which has now aged; the dip wasn't just because of tougher law enforcement, although that definitely helped, in my opinion.
"If young men are jobless or broke, they make cheap recruits for rebel armies.
"And if their rulers are crooked or cruel, they will have cause to rebel. Youth unemployment in Arab states is twice the global norm. The autocrats who were toppled in the Arab Spring were all well past pension age, had been in charge for decades and presided over kleptocracies.
Christopher Cramer of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London cautions that there is no straightforward causal link between unemployment and violence. It is not simply a lack of money that spurs young men to rebel, he explains; it is more that having a job is a source of status and identity.
Throughout history, men have killed men roughly 97 times more often than women have killed women. The reasons are biological. In all cultures, the appetite for mayhem peaks in the late teens or early 20s, “just when males are competing more fiercely for mating opportunities, as in other mammals”, notes Matt Ridley in “The Evolution of Everything”. In “Homicide”, Martin Daly and Margo Wilson put it like this: “Any creature that is recognisably on track towards complete reproductive failure must somehow expend effort, often at risk of death, to try to improve its present life trajectory.” Wars, alas, give young men a chance to kill potential rivals (ie, other men) and seize or rape women. From Islamic State to the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, rebel forces often let their troops treat females as spoils."
This may be true, but it of course doesn't make it right. I'm never very sympathetic to arguments that my hormones made me do it, whether it's a male or a female proposing it. The exception would be something severe and quantifiable like post-partum depression. Otherwise, it's about on par with if I don't have it I'll get ill. Boo hoo. For what it's worth, brain imaging shows that most teen-age brains are similar to the brains of adults with bi-polar disorder. That's not a good enough excuse either. Similar isn't the same.
"The polygamy powder keg
Any system that produces a surplus of single men is likely to be unstable. Polygamous societies suffer “higher rates of murder, theft, rape, social disruption, kidnapping (especially of females), sexual slavery and prostitution,” note Joseph Henrich, Robert Boyd and Peter Richerson in “The Puzzle of Monogamy”. The Mormon church banned polygamy in 1890 but some breakaway enclaves still practise it. They solve the problem of surplus males by expelling teenage boys from their isolated communities for minor infractions. In southern Utah your correspondent met Kevin (he would not give his surname), who was thrown out of such a sect at 17 for playing video games. He said it was odd how the elders almost never expelled girls."
It's not just polygamy, though. The selective abortion practiced in China and India has the same effect.