"Why Are Terrorists So Often Young Men?"

[applegrove]

Why Are Terrorists So Often Young Men?

by Meredith Melnick at Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/23/terrorists-men-violent-biology-boston-marathon_n_3117206.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

"SNIP................................


Overall, young men are risk takers, sensation-seekers and eager to prove their masculinity, according to Steinberg. They are the demographic most likely to die from accidental injury. They tend to have higher average car insurance premiums because actuaries know that members of this age group are more likely to drive recklessly, to have a fatal car crash and to drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs. They are more likely to abuse drugs and to break the law.

"If you look at crime data, you find what's called the age-crime curve," said Steinberg. "It's flat until about age 10 and then it peaks at about 18. What's amazing about this is that it transcends all cultures -- it's the same in all countries. And it's very robust over historical data too. If you look at different time periods, you'll find different average levels of crime, but the same distribution."

Those in that age range are at the peak of a variety of neurochemical phenomena, said Baird. "You build muscle easiest, you are more able to stay awake at night, you're less sensitive to punishment, more focused on status and reward," he said. "That doesn't mean you'll be violent -- it also could mean you'll be the opposite: Firefighters and law enforcement are also mostly young men. It's also the thing that allows you to run toward an explosion."

Young men experience a surge of testosterone that leads to an impulse to prove oneself, Baird explained. Testosterone means you’ll want to increase your status and many young men seek status as the toughest, the most popular and -- if they display antisocial thinking -- the most aggressive and violent.

..............................SNIP"

[jberryhill]

1. "Could it be Low-T?"

If you don't want to blow random shit up anymore, it could be Low-T. Talk to your doctor.

[LostOne4Ever]

4. That reply is pure win.

You sir or madam, win the interwebz.

[Cali_Democrat]

17. LMAO

[LondonReign2]

37. Simple solution

Thankfully, Mr. Clemens provides us with a simple solution:

"When a boy turns 13, seal him in a barrel and feed him through a knot hole.
When he turns 16, plug up the hole." -- Mark Twain.

Problem solv-ved!

[flamingdem]

38. Can't wait to hear that commercial!

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

2. I'm masculine...

...I guess I'm an oppressive thug.

[bettyellen]

3. did you fail logic in school?

[jberryhill]

5. He said he was masculine, so...

[lumberjack_jeff]

6. Frustrated you can't say "why are they muslim?" you can always say "why are they men?"

Some lines of biased questioning are okay.

Why are they men? Because men are disposable.

[applegrove]

7. Men do comit more crimes of all kinds. They are more violent than women. Why can't we talk about

why?

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. That's right. "We" can't. You don't have any experience being a man.

If you must use the word "they" to explain behavior, then you don't have an opinion worth listening to.

The exact same principle holds true for white protestants talking about why muslims are more violent.

[applegrove]

14. We as a society need to look into how

Last edited Thu Apr 25, 2013, 12:03 AM - Edit history (1)

we can get some men going in the right direction. Think of Ben Bradly the managing editor of the Washington Post for years. I read his biography and it turn out that his incredible affability is sublimated aggression. He went far and changed the world. If the rich have ways with coping with aggression don't you think the middle class and poor should know about it? For sure we are only talking about a small percentage of young men who need help and options. But it is a discussion we should have. We, society at large, are at a point in psychology and biology where we are trying to solve a whole host of problems. Why not this. Why allow lives to be wasted?

[JI7]

15. but men actually are more violent than women

[TDale313]

16. Oh, details, details.

Cue post with an example of some woman somewhere who committed a horrible act to ignore that statistically, yes, the (vast) majority of violent crimes are committed by men.

[bettyellen]

30. do we not discuss crimes because we are not the perpetrators? Perhaps we should ask criminals

what do about them. Hilarious.
And coming from someone who bitches about women 24/7, even more so.

[whathehell]

76. LOL!

[geek tragedy]

33. The facts have a pronounced anti-man bias, apparently.

Vast majority of violence--legal and otherwise--on every continent, in every culture, in every decade of every century, by members of any faith or ideology--is committed by people with the Y chromosome. Men.

So, your analogy fails.

[geek tragedy]

42. "you lack even that tiny bit of influence over the issue."

"your contribution to the conversation is irrelevant."

I double-dog dare you to explain the quoted language. I'm guessing you won't.

[lumberjack_jeff]

44. Dictionaries are cheap.

The meaning is evident.

What you thought I said? That's what I meant.

[geek tragedy]

45. What about me disqualifies me from having the influence you claim you

can make?

What is different about us?

[lumberjack_jeff]

46. If you are a man, then I apologize.

If you are a woman, then I don't. Women don't have standing to explain to men why we are violent.

[geek tragedy]

47. Yes, male born and gendered.

I am flattered you think my opinion is worthy of consideration. Perhaps you shouldn't assume things about people's genders based on their opinions.

[lumberjack_jeff]

48. I apologize.

mea culpa.

[bettyellen]

86. we don't need an explanation, we need to see the issue being taken seriously.

[TygrBright]

52. Exactly! This is why ONLY gun crime victims & gun owners can legitimately discuss gun regulation n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

59. Exactly what kind of regulation of men do you suggest?

Since you apparently regard men in the same way you regard deadly weapons, this seems a reasonable question.

[TygrBright]

60. Putting down the toilet seat lid, definitely. We need a Constitutional amendment on that. n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

62. We'll take that under advisement. n/t

[bettyellen]

25. No- are you projecting a bit with this racist shit, Jeff? Horrible thing to say.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

11. are you two trying to provoke me...

...into proving my masculinity? Shall I show you a picture of my bald spot? The hair on my chest? Or is there only one way to prove my masculinity to most of you. And, frankly, what does violence or dominance have to do with my masculinity?

[bettyellen]

29. no, I'm asking where you got the stupid idea that ALL men had a problem with violence.

because it's bullshit, and any reasonable adult should know better.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

73. it's lazy writing, and any halfway decent wtiter...

...would recognize that. What, exactly are they trying to prove? Oh yeah, all that "masculine stuff" that stupid people already assume because, like the lazy scribe, morons already have a negative connotation associated with masculinity. Are you new here? Read many anti-male posts. Certainly, you're a contributor.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

74. I know it's off limits to write about...

...in print, but don't you realize women try to prove their femininity regularly. Man, that's some crazy shit!

[bettyellen]

75. oh, please enlighten me about what "women regularly do"....

[11 Bravo]

79. Well, did you check out the post about the young Arab who was ejected from Saudi Arabia ...

because he was too good looking? You might have been astounded, or maybe not, at the rampant objectification of the poor soul. "I'd like a piece of that" and "I hope my husband understands if I let him move in" were some of the tamer posts. And you know what ... I didn't give a flying fuck ... didn't feel demeaned or anything else. I only remember the post because I knew another thread of this nature would eventually arise. So, were you offended by that post?

[bettyellen]

80. I'm not sure you caught the odd threat of sterotyping women in the post I was responding to?

Kind of hard to miss. But what it has to do with women assesing the looks of someone who is EMPLOYED to look good....

Is that somehow the same as a coworker or strange man offering up their assessment of a strangers looks to THEM, unsolicited? Becasue maybe it flew over your head- but that is what women at DU have complained about.

looking at a professional image of a MODEL and discussing it online is kind of huge, isn't it?

Also, there's a huge difference between judging a model's looks VS an attorney general, isn't there?

If you were both in the entertainment business, it would be okay to say how smoking hot a person is- because it's their job. They actually do work really hard and spend a lot of time and money to maintain their weight, muscle, skin, everything. But no one should ever assume the average coworker really wants your unsolicited opinion of their face or body- it's too personal, rude, and invites others to gaze a bit too hard as if it's some kind of contest.

It's not so difficult to understand the difference- so why do you pretend these situations are in any way similar?

Why when you see someone here type some DUMB SHIT sterotyping women, do you immediately jump to their defense by straying so far off topic?

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

83. FOCUS ladies! This thread. This writer, Meredith Melnick, and my comments...

M. Melnick: Overall, young men are eager to "prove their masculinity."

You two find my comments so intriguing you can't help but respond to them...repeatedly. And your response: You're telling me I've read something you posted somewhere on DU, and that I have definite thoughts about them!!!

Hahaha!!

I know this behavior well.

Thank you for playing!

[bettyellen]

84. You don't seem to realize I was not replying to you here. Focus yourself.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

81. you don't know what it means to "prove your femininity?"

You know exactly what it means for men "prove their masculinity," but you're absolutely clueless when it comes to the other gender...

Remarkable!

[bettyellen]

82. I think you are the only one promoting these stupid sexist notions about "proving" things....

who is fucking dumb enough to think they need to be proving their ____ to anyone else?
what century are you living in that you even think like that?

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

85. OK bitterellen. You can't help yourself. I'll know where to find you...

...you're attracted to gender wars like a fly is to a turd. That's a pretty accurate assessment, too.

[olddots]

8. 4---3---2---1

[Douglas Carpenter]

9. I think for similar reasons young men might make good soldiers or true believers in any cause

I suppose that as far as true believers are concerned that could be women as well. Youth by its nature is more willing to set aside all critical faculties and devote itself to the righteous cause - political, religious - whether it is a productive cause or a harmful cause. But Combatants whether recognized soldiers of a recognized state or illegal non-state combatants adds the masculine appeal that would be more inviting to men than to women - as a generalization. A great deal of the world - not only the Islamic world - but throughout the third world and to some extent in the western world - there does exist a romanticized notion of the guerrilla freedom fighter - the tough. street-wise fighter for the oppressed - operating outside the legal system. On the emotional plain I suppose it has an emotional and macho appeal to those who accept that romanticized image that is not all that different than the appeal of being one of "the few, the proud, the Marine."

[MillennialDem]

12. I'm 32, transgender, take female hormones, and still find myself very aggressive, hypervigilant,

, able to function on little sleep, and danger seeking / adrenaline junkie.

[Warpy]

13. I know one thing I remember about puberty

was how angry I was all the time. I had just gotten good at being a kid when wham! my body started to do all these awful things to me like zits and periods and I didn't even have a testosterone surge to cope with.

I eventually got over it. I guess it's harder for a lot of young males.

[JI7]

18. what were you angry about ?

[4 t 4]

19. we're all much more angry when we are young

then we grow and mellow ,but Men take a turn backwoods at about the age of 50-60 they revert and become more immature and more angry then ever , not all, but the majority of men over 55 are more immature then when they were like 45 and they are -mad at the world, so are women but they turn it out in a different way.

[marions ghost]

67. I've seen this phenom...

but it seems like an exaggeration to say that "the majority of men" over 55 revert to immaturity. That behavior seems to be limited to a type--men who are narcissist and aggressive and/or angry because they're not getting what they "deserve" in life.

--But this is not the majority of men that I encounter. (Thankfully) the majority that I encounter in their 50's are what you'd call mature and OK with themselves, and good to people.

[bhikkhu]

36. That's the least relevant question

...as hormonally driven anger precedes any "about" it might attach to.

We feel like a fight, so we look for trouble to get into a fight over.

I remember being unnaccountably angry quite a bit when I was younger, and spent a lot of time looking for why. Mostly I was embarrassed or ashamed of it, because the world has always been full of people who have every reason to be angry at their lot in life, but who still manage to put on a smile and try to make their world a better place. On the other hand, I had advantages and opportunities in abundance (lower middle class california suburban, good family), yet just felt full of anger and hatred.

Asking "why", particularly of a kid who doesn't know, is just asking for some narrative to be invented, which is completely beside the point. Hormones fluctuate quite a bit in adolescence, and hormones create moods out of nothing in the same way drugs can create mental states out of nothing.

[Warpy]

53. Read it again and find out.

[Live and Learn]

20. Here is another good article demonstrating the point.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Teen Brain May Have Pushed Him to Violence

By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES (@SusanDJames)
April 23, 2013


snip>

Now, science has confirmed that the human brain is not fully developed until the age of 25. The brain develops from back to front – from the emotional limbic system first to the rational frontal precortex last.

snip>

But psychiatrists like Galynker said that a 19-year-old like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev would have "difficulty with executive functioning, assessing risk and understanding the consequences of behavior." At 26, Tamerlan, despite his alleged terrorist motives, was "fully matured and [his brain] myelinated."

snip>

Teenagers are particularly vulnerable to the influences of others because of the immaturity of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. That is the part of the brain where social consequences of actions are weighed, where planning and forming of strategies, as well as inhibiting behaviors, are rooted.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/boston-marathon-bomb-suspect-dzhokhar-tsarnaevs-teen-brain/story?id=19019227#.UXeNGUrNlhI

[dimbear]

21. Have to admit, at my age my hands aren't as steady as they were once. I shouldn't be

handling high explosives.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

22. For similar reasons that most criminals, soldiers, athletes and accident victims are, I suspect.

The common denominators probably being adrenaline, recklessness, physical courage, desire for activity, aggression etc.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

34. I'm sure physical ability is a major component.

After hearing my husband, then-boyfriend, describe what soldiers carry with them it's amazing they can move at all let alone march 20 miles over rough terrain and then fight for hours. Most older soldiers have bodies ravaged by the constant exertion and "athletic" injuries.

[LittleBlue]

23. Testosterone makes men aggressive

and water is wet. Derp.

[Recursion]

24. Because the Y chromosome is evolutionarily expendable?

That was Montague's argument, at least.

[graham4anything]

26. 48-ounce big gulp sodas with 780 calories and a helleva lot of sugar.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

32. You really are just a troll, aren't you?

[datasuspect]

27. search for meaning

every young man wants to think he matters, that he stands for something. that his life has meaning. elder males in many cultures use to guide a young man into manhood through various rites of passage. maybe that doesn't happen so much anymore.

still, for lots of young men:

some get golf course hookups from their daddy's cronies

some make a bee line to the nearest US military recruiting office

some want to avenge a brother, father, uncle

some want to gain entry to heaven

some want a better life for their mother

some want to shine in the eyes of their god

some work their way up from fry cook to area regional manager

some work the land

some tend the goats

some get inspired by the words of a persuasive imam

etc, and so on, same as it ever was.

[BlueCaliDem]

28. For the same reason, I'd gather, why the military like recruiting 18-year-olds . . .

they make the best and most obedient soldiers.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

31. Darwin killed of all the dumb ones?

[geek tragedy]

35. Testosterone, it's a hell of a drug. nt

[flamingdem]

39. ban testosterone !

[Blue_In_AK]

40. When I worked in criminal law and corrections,

the vast overwhelming majority of new clients were young men in their early 20s. Just something about that age and lack of impulse control.

[Mosby]

63. when I worked in juvenile corrections

No one wanted to work in the girls units because they were totally out of control. Staff were attacked every day in those units, they were spit on, kicked, slapped and scratched by the girls. Nothing like this happened in the boys units, kids started fights but the staff were rarely targeted.

[Blue_In_AK]

65. I worked in a men's prison, medium security,

a treatment facility for mostly sex offenders. I was a "wing counselor," meaning I had about 20-30 guys that were "mine." We had groups and one-on-one counseling (I have a psych degree). It was pretty interesting, and I learned a lot. (Ironically, I had more problems with some of the other CO's than I did the inmates, who all seemed to like and trust me pretty much and hardly ever gave me any grief.) This was back in the early '80s. These days I think they just throw everyone together and hope for the best. A lot of our inmates are sent down to Colorado or Arizona to private prisons now which really kind of sucks, especially for the Alaska Natives from the villages.

My husband also worked in juvenile corrections for a while after he retired from being a marine engineer. We always thought it was kind of funny that we both independently worked in corrections, just one of the many things we have in common.

[Mosby]

68. I worked at the adobe mt facility in phoenix for 5 years

Worked with all kinds of kids also, did counseling and casework but the biggest problems I faced were with lousy YCOs. Some hated the kids, some wanted to be their moms and dads and some just didn't give a shit.

I worked with a lot of sex offenders myself due to the fact that a lot of other staff could not handle it.

The worst kids to deal with were the "junior" sociopaths, they tended to stay in the background most of the time but when they started something it would be completely OTT. One kid I worked with started a riot between two units, a staff member lost an eye during the fight. The kid was a complete psycho but he had been badly abused for years. His back was covered with scars from where his dad used to whip him.

I gave up this line of work because I felt isolated and I could see that it was changing me.

[Blue_In_AK]

70. I hear ya.

I left because my Asst. Superintendent said I thought more like a convict than a CO. He was just mad because I kept confidences. I figured there were enough asshole CO's there wanting to bust people and not enough willing to listen and help. If the administration was going to put me in a counselor position, then I was going to invoke counselor/patient privilege. Those guys didn't need me blabbing their secrets to everyone.

[lumberjack_jeff]

43. Why are the first responders and rescuers almost always men? n/t

[aikoaiko]

49. Young, dumb, and full of...

...angst.

[Blue_Roses]

50. It's a very impressionable time for many...

having good mentors is so important, but unfortunately, so far and few between.

[cvoogt]

51. Statistically speaking

Most terrorists don't grow to old age

[bike man]

55. Explosive vests are in fact not conducive to aging. nt

[cvoogt]

58. There is a direct correlation there/nt

[raccoon]

54. Because old men are slower and have less energy? :silly: nt

[Earth_First]

56. Religion and economics?

Distressed by a dismal economic outlook coupled with religion which promises riches beyond imagination in the afterlife?

I don't adhere to either, I do not need wild riches in my mortal lifetime nor do I adhere to religion...just my opinion...

[Marrah_G]

57. Not touching this topic with a ten foot pole

[Initech]

61. I'm guessing it's because they scored low on the TMI index.

[smirkymonkey]

66. LOL!

Great episode!

[applegrove]

64. Yes and evolution made it so that more men would be born than females. Because

there needed to be an equal number for procreation. So even thousands of years of evolution agrees that men live dangerous lives when they are young.

[Bucky]

69. Pshaw, there's more male babies because male sperm swim faster

while female-making sperm keep stopping to look in windows to fix their hair or gossip about each other.

The numbers I've seen in statistic tables in the US run about 52-48%, but they level off to even-Stephanie by the age of 15.

[kentuck]

71. You're profiling!

No fair!

[AnnieBW]

72. Because Women Find Other Ways To Get In Trouble

Young women of that age are a little more mature, but their ways of getting in trouble generally involve unprotected sex, alcohol, and a camera phone.

I didn't march for Women's Rights so that young women could star in "Girls Gone Wild" videos.

[WinkyDink]

77. NO JOBS.

[darkangel218]

78. I call BS.

I don't agree with making excuses for terrorists, by explaining how many are " ofren young men "
They know what they're doing, there is no FUCKING excuse! FAIL to whoever wrote this article!!!