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Comment by asdfasgasdgasdg | Hacker News Reader

Thank you for saying so. I was actually banned/rate-limited from this site for being a little too ideological a few years ago and after thinking about the types of comments I was writing I decided to try to change my ways -- and not just here. I'm trying to let myself be led by curiosity rather than indignation or pride when it comes to the news and big issues. I recommend it -- it's actually helped me remove the contention in some personal relationships, in addition to IMO making me a better contributor to internet communities I'm in.

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Boy, if ever there was a redemption story tailored to appeal to an HN audience, this might be it (it worked on me, at least).

Just FYI, like most studies of behaviors and their causes in large populations, the hypothesis that lead exposure resulted in more crime is not proven, see e.g.: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5801257/

My priors (from a Bayesian perspective) that lead, which in high doses provably can result in brain damage, can have more subtle effects on behavioral inhibition and executive function is pretty high, but I still do not know that I would feel confident saying the evidence is clear.

I affirm that the hypothesis is not solidly proven at this point. Although I also wonder what else could explain the widespread fall in criminality. Is it possible that the 90s was just the point where we reached economic sufficiency for a large swathe of people who would otherwise have been criminals to attain more? Maybe violent video games have diverted the little criminal in many of us (I jest but I have heard this idea floated in some places)? Did people switch to drugs that were less likely to cause criminal behavior? It would be nice to have an answer but I suspect that we will never have more than questions and conjectures on this one.

The most interesting theory I've found was banning lead in fuel. There's been a nationwide drop in crime rates in the decades since lead additive was banned.

The 90's was when the first generation not exposed to tetraethyl lead reached their teens

Wow this chain of comments goes in a circle.

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