Word: tend
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...obviously an effort to discredit the reigning view that crime is largely, or entirely, the by-product of poverty, racism, broken families and other social disturbances. By focusing narrowly on environmental conditions that help breed crime, the authors write, criminologists overlook traits that many offenders seem to share. Criminals tend to be young males who are muscular rather than thin, and who have lower-than-average IQs and impulsive, "now"-oriented personalities, which make planning or even thinking about the future difficult. While these factors do not cause crime, they say, "the evidence leaves no doubt" that constitutional traits correlate...
Many of the book's assertions are open to debate, but the most likely to draw heavy fire are the freewheeling ruminations on body types and IQs. The authors cite studies showing that criminals tend to be more mesomorphic (muscular) and less ectomorphic (linear) than the general population. The authors think this finding points to a link between body type, temperament and crime. Other studies indicate that muscularity is associated with an extroverted, high-energy, domineering temperament, while an inhibited, restrained person who is likely to internalize the rules of society and steer clear of crime tends to be thin...
...factor in crime. "For four decades," they write, "large bodies of evidence have consistently shown about a ten-point gap between the average offender and nonoffender in Great Britain and in the U.S." Though the authors make much of this difference, it may mean only that low-IQ criminals tend to get caught more often than their smarter colleagues. But for the authors, the important finding is that low IQ is associated with a particular kind of crime: impulsive acts with an immediate payoff, such as rapes and muggings. Though this finding may be interpreted in many ways, Wilson...
Scientists, however, have been making remarkable progress in a technique that can sharply focus their search for a desired gene. Known as restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), the method relies on enzymes that slice DNA in distinctive patterns; families with a history of a genetic disease will tend to have similar configurations, permitting scientists to zero in on the likeliest site of the offending gene. In recent weeks biologists have announced the discovery of RFLP distinctive patterns, or "markers," for cystic fibrosis, which afflicts about 30,000 Americans; cardiovascular disease susceptibility; polycystic kidney disease; and muscular dystrophy. Says Manuel Buchwald...
...other hand, though, distinctly individualistic professors tend to build their own isolated empires, fragmenting the department and debilitating its ability to work as a whole, Grabar says...