Boys With Unpopular Names More Likely to Break Law

[Breaking News Breaking News]

livescience.com
Wed Jan 28, 1:05 pm ET
 
Boys in the United States with common names like Michael and David are less likely to commit crimes than those named Ernest or Ivan.

David E. Kalist and Daniel Y. Lee of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania compared the first names of male juvenile delinquents to the first names of male juveniles in the population. The researchers constructed a popularity-name index (PNI) for each name. For example, the PNI for Michael is 100, the most frequently given name during the period. The PNI for David is 50, a name given half as frequently as Michael. The PNI is approximately 1 for names such as Alec, Ernest, Ivan, Kareem, and Malcolm.

Results show that, regardless of race, juveniles with unpopular names are more likely to engage in criminal activity. The least popular names were associated with juvenile delinquency among both blacks and whites.

The findings, announced today, are detailed in the journal Social Science Quarterly.

While the names are likely not the cause of crime, the researchers argue that "they are connected to factors that increase the tendency to commit crime, such as a disadvantaged home environment, residence in a county with low socioeconomic status, and households run by one parent."

"Also, adolescents with unpopular names may be more prone to crime because they are treated differently by their peers, making it more difficult for them to form relationships," according to a statement released by the journal's publisher. "Juveniles with unpopular names may also act out because they consciously or unconsciously dislike their names."

The findings could help officials " identify individuals at high risk of committing or recommitting crime, leading to more effective and targeted intervention programs," the authors conclude.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/2009...rtaWwEtbAF

[HeadSpace]

I wonder if my name is unpopular. It's Cristopher, But Kristoffer in norwegian. Would be cool to see a list of those unpopular ones..

And I was wondering who you are, someone new with a strange name or remodeling from the moderators? Just curious:)

Edit:

Just found my name on last years popular list.

[Astrojewels]

It is weird that they have researched such a thing, but I do believe there is a lot of truth to it, some boys with certain names are always naughty. I think you are ok headspace; Christopher is a popular name wherever you are in the world.

[Richard]

HeadSpace[/color]]I was wondering who you are, someone new with a strange name or remodeling from the moderators? Just curious:)

I started using the Hyperspace Cafe account to post news stories with. It was a way of separating news stories from my personal posts. I know some people don’t like reading news stories and this will make it easy for them to know which threads to skip.

 
Karen,

It made sense to me because every name has a different frequency. People that get into trouble will have similar frequencies and similar names.

[Sily]

Richard[/color]]....It made sense to me because every name has a different frequency...

Man o man, I do believe that.  I think Astrojewels has even mentioned differences in names where people have 2 double letters in them.  I am very sensitive to people, that choose on the internets, to not capitalize the first letter of the name they pick.

[Richard]

I noticed tons of people don’t capitalize the first letter of the name they pick. Experts claim people who do that don’t think much of themselves. However I think it’s people who text on their phones a lot. People who text usually don’t capitalize anything and that habit carries over to everything they do. I noticed a lot of these texters don’t put spaces after periods either. I guess it’s too much effort for them. Or some of them don’t use periods at all and their sentences just goes on and on. icon_lol

[Sily]

ARG!  It drives me batty Richard!  icon_look    I think the first letter should always be capitalized.

The name "Richard" -  that way looks good to me.

The name "richard" like this  - It doesn't look right I tell you!!!    icon_lepra


The name "Sily" like this -  Looks a-okay to me!  *thumbs up!*

"sily" like this with a small "S"  - - - >   icon_motz  ... omg, I wanna kill someone when they do this!!!

---

For me... there is a different energy.. a waaaay different energy between capitalized first letter and not.  But that's just me... lol... and my *strict* ways  (remember, I like things organized -- like "shapeshifting" under its proper category)  icon_megagrin

[Richard]

I agree the first letter in a name should be capitalized. It looks funny when it isn’t. One thing I wondered is if some people don’t capitalize the first letter in their name to make it quicker to log into sites. At this forum it wouldn’t make a difference though. Member names aren’t case sensitive when logging in. You can login using lowercase even if your name is in uppercase.

This conversation reminds me of something else that strikes me as strange. I see a lot of people but mostly writers that use a hyphen before their name. I don’t see the point of doing that. I remember we discussed this before on the forum and Monica said it’s used to draw attention to the person’s name. I don’t know if that’s the reason people do it or not. icon_confused

Example below:

-Richard

[Sily]

Richard[/color]]-Richard

I have seen a lot of names like this ---> _Richard  or _Richard_

The reason for that, I believe, is to allow someone who wants to use the name "Richard",  in a chat room or forum, to add an underscore like that and it will allow them to register under _Richard_ or any name that is already taken.

Here's something else I've seen - "x's" by the names to add a little decoration.  Like this "_xSilyx_"  -- looks strange to me, but people do it. 

[Richard]

I haven’t seen the hyphen used much in member names. I’ve seen it used a lot when people type their name at the end of post or article they wrote. For example -Janet does it a lot. Other people like to use a tilde before their name. I think Polly and Lefty do that. Example: ~Polly.