Video clips aside, there is considerable empirical evidence to suggest that criminals are less intelligent than the rest of us. Here's a nice summary of decades of research findings contained in a paper entitled "The Contribution of Family Adversity and Verbal IQ to Criminal Behavior."

Research has shown that cognitive deficits and criminal behavior share variation that is independent of the effects of social class, race, test motivation, and academic achievement (Lynam, Moffitt, & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1993; Moffitt, 1990). Moreover, existing empirical evidence supports the conclusion that the association between verbal deficiencies and offending behavior is one of the largest and most robust effects in the investigation of criminal behavior (see Hirschi & Hindelang, 1977; Moffitt, 1990; Moffitt & Henry, 1991; Moffitt & Silva, 1988). The consistency of these findings gives support to the notion that delinquents have a language manipulation deficit and that individuals with such neuropsychological deficiencies tend to be involved in offending at an early age. However, there is limited empirical evidence showing that childhood verbal IQ test scores interact with one’s social environment to minimize and/or maximize their likelihood of early offending behavior (Moffitt, 1993, 1997).

While the study does report that family adversity has some impact on the likelihood of early offending, that in no way mitigates the fact of the correlation between crime and IQ.

There are many objections to the above mentioned research findings, one of which has to due with the characteristics of the sample. Here's how one such objection was described in a piece entitled "Genius Criminals" appearing in Quest a publication of Old Dominion University:

Criminals are generally thought to be just a little dumb, with IQs averaging eight points below the norm. Those, of course, are criminals who got caught. What about the ones bright enough to escape detection and capture?

Quest goes on to tell us that a sociologist/criminologist has taken up this question in earnest:

Little is known about genius criminals, the lawbreakers with IQs of 132 or more, the ones who got away. It is a gap in knowledge that Old Dominion University’s James C. Oleson has worked nine years to fill. Oleson, 36, is a popular assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice who has developed and taught eight courses since 2001, including one called “Murder.”

One of Oleson's most interesting findings concerns the high degree of "intellectual arrogance" that characterizes high IQ offenders:

Generally, Oleson says, bright criminals focus on nonviolent crime such as fraud or tax evasion, with many using illegal drugs or even dealing drugs. “Especially for the consensual crime, there was the sense of being above what the law required. And a lot of them said very bluntly that they were glad the laws were there because most people needed that kind of coerced influence to regulate their behavior but that they didn’t and that they could make conscientious choices of their own. There really is a kind of intellectual arrogance or superiority about their viewpoint.” Violent offenders had the same intellectual arrogance. “Another motive that seemed to emerge repeatedly,” Oleson says, “was a revenge motive, that they had been snubbed and slighted and picked on all their lives. They had been ostracized as brains or nerds.”

The other interesting finding is that a relatively small number of his subjects, about 6%, committed the half the crimes. According to the article this result matches those for "criminals of ordinary intelligence."

Commentary

Earlier this week I wrote about a program in Dubai wherein convicts are trained for jobs as auto mechanics. Programs like this are common in the United States. And while I have no information about the IQs of those who enroll in them, let alone the effect on recidivism, I would have to guess that the men taking advantage of the training are probably a little less intelligent than the population average, though by no means idiots. I'd also guess that high IQ criminals steer clear of such programs. Why?

Because intellectual arrogance poses an enormous barrier to the self-reflection that must precede the abandonment of the criminal path. It takes humility to learn and highly intelligent people, especially the ones that want people to know how smart they are, are very hard to teach. There is just no way that I can imagine a high IQ criminal like Jeff Skilling, the former CEO of Enron, enrolled in any kind rehabilitation program during his 24 year stint. This, after all, was a man who, during his admissions interview for Harvard's MBA program responded to the question "Are you smart" with the words "I'm f**king smart."

If there is a videotape of that exchange anywhere, it should be on YouTube too, perhaps with this unwieldy title: "Not-so-smart-as-he-thinks Criminal."

Tags: Crime | Video | youtube| skilling | Criminal | Crimes | Criminals | Jeff Skilling

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