Have there been any studies correlating crime with a competitive environment?

cosmictotem

cosmictotem

Registered Senior Member
Has anyone heard of any studies that contrast non-competitive environments with competitive environments and measure for crime?

I'm interested if access to resources under a non-competitive environment has an effect of lowering crime.

I'm thinking also this could be tested in experiments regarding cheating at competitive games rather easily.
 
sideshowbob said:
What would "crime" be in a non-competitive environment?
Click to expand...

Well, first a non-competitive environment would be a resource management model where individuals do not have to struggle or compete by merit for resources but everyone gets the same amount of resources. Let's say a comfortable allowance of resources based on an above average measure of the biological necessity and comfort scale of the individual.

And crime under such a model might be, for instance, someone still stealing the resources of another individual despite receiving their own limited allowance of resources scientifically measured to abundantly support the life and comfort of a single average individual.

I would assume experiments could be conducted to determine if people will still steal despite being guarantied a steady, abundant but limited source of resources.

Not having such stats, I'm also trying to find (as a replacement) white collar crime stats (preferably by well-off individuals) despite them already having a healthy income by legal means.

I don't know if you can see what I'm trying to do but I'm trying to determine if there is a correlation between an environment of low or no competition over resources and low crime.

I'm not interested in welfare and crime stats, specifically, because I think people still struggle on welfare because it is not an abundant source of resources and that kind of corrupts the data.
 
cosmictotem said:
I would assume experiments could be conducted to determine if people will still steal despite being guarantied a steady, abundant but limited source of resources.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, I believe *greed* is an unrestricted offspring of *movement in the direction of greatest satisfaction*.
Today there are people who have enough money to support their entire family for eternity. Yet, curiously, they want ever more.

When there are unlimited resources (as we once thought), that would not be too bad, but when dealing with limited resources, and then use them wastefully, mother nature will respond in accordance to the *exponential function*, steady growth of anything in a limited environment will inescapably result in a *numerical correction*.

And when nature responds on a global scale, the result is usually bad for living things.
 
Last edited:
Can lay people suggest experiments to the scientific community?

It would seem a great deal of valuable data could be produced and provided toward advancing the argument suggesting a correlation between crime and competition for resources.

What would happen if scientists took individuals supposedly pre-disposed to commit crimes for various reasons, like poverty, abuse, genetics, etc...and gave them a limited but abundant allowance of resources?

Would that change the statistical outcome?
 
cosmictotem said:
Can lay people suggest experiments to the scientific community?

It would seem a great deal of valuable data could be produced and provided toward advancing the argument suggesting a correlation between crime and competition for resources.

What would happen if scientists took individuals supposedly pre-disposed to commit crimes for various reasons, like poverty, abuse, genetics, etc...and gave them a limited but abundant allowance of resources?

Would that change the statistical outcome?
Click to expand...
I am not sure if that would be reliable data. How would you determine who is pre-disposed to commit crimes? I agree that most petty crime would disappear, but petty crimes are not the problem.

It's the High Crimes and Misdemeanors that are committed by already wealthy people.. That problem won't be solved with giving them more money. This is what we did when the economy collapsed, to the tune of some trillion dollars. A lot of that free money ended up as some 100 million dollars in bonuses to the already wealthy, for a job well done!

IMO, it's time some CEOs did jail-time. That would cure the Big Crimes (against society) in a hurry.

Personally I would set a generous cap of what any individual can earn, without paying a tax penalty. But if their income exceeds a certain limit, they must return some to be used for the general welfare of the nation's economy.

Note that the stock-market is at an all-time high. The rich are doing just fine, yet they come up with more and more creative ways to squeeze just a little more from the poor. Tax-free off-shore accounts in the trillions. I consider that a High Crime against the nation.
 
Last edited:
Write4U said:
I am not sure if that would be reliable data. How would you determine who is pre-disposed to commit crimes? I agree that most petty crime would disappear, but petty crimes are not the problem.

It's the Big crimes that are committed by already wealthy people.. That problem won't be solved with giving them more money. This is what we did when the economy collapsed, to the tune of some trillion dollars. A lot of that free money ended up as a 100 million dollar bonuses for the already wealthy, for a job well done!

IMO, it's time some CEOs did jail-time. That would cure the Big Crimes (against society) in a hurry.
Click to expand...

Actually, I'm trying to rule out any alleged predispositions (genetics, IQ, poverty, testosterone, abuse) as major contributing factors by introducing or checking it with existing data for behavior in regards to resources in non-competitive environments.

Also I want to compare blue collar crime stats over several decades (which I have) with white collar crime stats (which I can't find).

If poverty, genetics, abuse, IQ, etc..were solely the main contributing factors to violent crime....what is the contributing factor to white collar crime?

And if that contributing factor to white collar crime is actually a competitive environment itself....it may also actually be the main culprit for violent crime.
 
cosmictotem said:
If poverty, genetics, abuse, IQ, etc..were solely the main contributing factors to violent crime....what is the contributing factor to white collar crime?
Click to expand...
Greed for more!

Why is it that we pay more for US made medicine in Canada, than in the US? Riddle me that one.
 
cosmictotem said:
And crime under such a model might be, for instance, someone still stealing the resources of another individual despite receiving their own limited allowance of resources scientifically measured to abundantly support the life and comfort of a single average individual.
Click to expand...
So... capitalism would be a crime.
 
cosmictotem said:
Has anyone heard of any studies that contrast non-competitive environments with competitive environments and measure for crime?

I'm interested if access to resources under a non-competitive environment has an effect of lowering crime.

I'm thinking also this could be tested in experiments regarding cheating at competitive games rather easily.
Click to expand...

Russia would be a good place to start ; I would think .

Or the former Soviet Union .
 
river said:
Russia would be a good place to start ; I would think .

Or the former Soviet Union .
Click to expand...

I thought of the Soviet Union but didn't a black market develop and people there were still struggling for resources. So they, by no means, had access to abundant resources and services. And we know, of course, there were shortages in the USSR.
 
cosmictotem said:
I thought of the Soviet Union but didn't a black market develop and people there were still struggling for resources. So they, by no means, had access to abundant resources and services. And we know, of course, there were shortages in the USSR.
Click to expand...

But some had access , that's my point

Hence crime
 
cosmictotem said:
We're the ones who had access committing the crimes?
Click to expand...
Perhaps we can look at the implications of creating a "competitive environment" among humans themselves, rather than in a mutually responsible *cooperative* environment.
In a competitive environment one takes.
In a cooperative environment one gives.

I have always worshipped the symbiotic relationship between flowering plants and honey bees. This cooperative behavior has resulted in the feeding of some 70% of all animal life, producing a perfectly sterile environment (not anymore), and the most beautiful shapes and colors in the flowering plants.
If the cooperation of two living species as simple as a flower and a honeybee can beneficially shape the global ecosystem in such a profound way, why can't we?
 
Write4U said:
Perhaps we can look at the implications of creating a "competitive environment" among humans themselves, rather than in a mutually responsible *cooperative* environment.
In a competitive environment one takes.
In a cooperative environment one gives.

I have always worshipped the symbiotic relationship between flowering plants and honey bees. This cooperative behavior has resulted in the feeding of some 70% of all animal life, producing a perfectly sterile environment (not anymore), and the most beautiful shapes and colors in the flowering plants.
If the cooperation of two living species as simple as a flower and a honeybee can beneficially shape the global ecosystem in such a profound way, why can't we?
Click to expand...

Because we think , beyond what allows us to exist or survive .

The flower and the bee , don't have the sophistication of pyschology
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top