Wednesday 15 July 2009

Do You Think You'll Find Any..?

Teenage gang members will undergo brain scans in an experiment designed to find out why they are so violent.

Scientists from University College London and charity Kids Company will use a 'mobile laboratory' to test 'hoodies' on London streets in an attempt to prove their brains have been scarred by years of abuse and neglect.
And what if that proves to be the case? Does that excuse what they do to others?

I suspect the answer will be 'Yes':
Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh developed the theory that children's brains can be damaged by neglect or abuse after interviewing 400 youngsters at the charity.

She said: 'We need to change the natural argument that these children are morally flawed.
Good luck with that.

Oh, yeah. And that's (of course) a charity swiftly heading into fakecharity waters, thanks to £12mill from the DCFS...

13 comments:

Ross said...

"She said: 'We need to change the natural argument that these children are morally flawed."

I'm no scientist, but isn't it traditional in modern science to find the results and then draw you conclusions, rather than the other way around?

Mercurius Aulicus said...

Time for a few lobotomies - and see whether that solves the problem of gang violence.

Anonymous said...

Cranial scans of Whitehall officials distributing Taxpayers' resources to the project, have yet to reveal evidence of brain matter.

Sue said...

What a joke. I expect they´ll all suffer from ODD.

I remember this one from last month Don´t give my son an Asbo, he´s just got a bit of ODD (that´s Oppositional Defiant Disorder)

More like NAGCRTED (Needs a good clip round the ear disorder).

gordon-bennett said...

I believe that the exercise of violence (and crime in general) is correlated with low IQ, as a consequence of dim people's inability to realise the consequences of their actions.

IQ level is innate and cannot be significantly changed.

Good luck with any attempt to eradicate violence other than by jailing the bastards.

Anonymous said...

Whatever all your prejudices, doesn't that possibility that childhood abuse (and I mean real abuse, not whining that people don't agree with you) cause long-term changes in brain structure interest you at all? There is already some evidence of this from studies on PTSD - which is what we would be talking about here.

Anybody who sneers at such a possibility is in the same league as the sneers at shell shock and associated disorders. Is that what you think? Bloody malingerers, should be shot for cowardice.

Mind you, it's always nice to know that there is always a corner of the world where kids are despised.

Mark Wadsworth said...

As to KidsCo, Camilla Batman (who is either mad or a genius, but at least she is sincere) used to run that on private donations until recently.

But I knew that she had sold out when I saw a huge poster in a Tube Station (about 6 months ago?) bearing their logo, saying something along the lines of "Boo hoo, most of these scalliwags only go off the rails because they don't have a father figure".

AntiCitizenOne said...

Might be better to stop financially encouraging crap parents to breed?

David Gillies said...

£12 million isn't sailing into fake charity waters. It's having arrived there some time ago and conducting naval exercises.

And yes, ACO, hitting the ferals in the pocket is the only way to reassert a modicum of control, short of shooting them. Scrap child support, completely. Stop bunging people with children to the top of the list for council housing. And above all, when they step out of line, garnishee their benefits savagely. We'd soon see a drop in the number of hoodies hanging around vandalising cars and beating up passers-by if they or the slattern who spawned them got their dole packet whacked by £2500 a year.

JuliaM said...

"I'm no scientist, but isn't it traditional in modern science to find the results and then draw you conclusions, rather than the other way around?"

That's the traditional way, indeed. But this study has obviously learned from the way the climate change scientists have been operating...

"Time for a few lobotomies.."

If we can include a few magistrates and establishment types in that, I'm all for it.

"More like NAGCRTED (Needs a good clip round the ear disorder)."

Lol! Very true...

"Good luck with any attempt to eradicate violence other than by jailing the bastards."

They never cease in their efforts to 'improve' mankind. I guess they never watched 'Serenity'...

James Higham said...

Will the brain scan reveal the breakdown of any code of ethics over the past two decades and the relativistic nicy nicy politics of today?

JuliaM said...

"Anybody who sneers at such a possibility is in the same league as the sneers at shell shock and associated disorders."

Mmm, not quite. First, it needs to be proven - and not, as Ross pointed out, by a study seeking to obtain evidence for a conclusion they've already reached. For they surely will find it, if grant money is at stake.

Secondly, if proven, then what? We immediately lock up all abuse cases showing brain structure changes as potentially criminal? Give them automatic ASBOs?

Why do I suspect you won't like that any better...?

"Might be better to stop financially encouraging crap parents to breed?"

Yes. Oh, yes.

"£12 million isn't sailing into fake charity waters. It's having arrived there some time ago and conducting naval exercises."

Heh!

Anonymous said...

Sue, is NAGCRTED associated with symptoms of NAGKUPTA (Needs a good kick up the arse) syndrome?