Race, Crime, Intellectual Performance - and Food: Poor Nutrition Con-tributes to Racial Differences in Violence and SAT Scores
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.15.397Keywords:
Keywords, race differences, crime, nutrition, diet, scholastic performanceAbstract
Might differential nutrition contribute to racial differences in violent crime and intellectual performance (SAT scores)? Nutritional intake across the 50 states in the US differed by race, such that states with a higher percentage of Whites and a lower percentage of Blacks had poorer nutritional intake. Crime rates and SAT scores also differed by race, such that violent crime rates were higher in states with a lower percentage of Whites and a higher percentage of Blacks, and Whites scored higher and Blacks scored lower on the SAT than did other racial groups. Nutritional intake partially mediated the link between race and violent crime and fully mediated the link between race and SAT performance. These findings suggest that improving the diet of Black citizens may be a promising avenue toward reducing socially problematic racial disparities in crime and school.
References
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psy-chological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Per-sonality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.
Eitle, D., & Turner, R. J. (2003). Stress exposure, race, and young adult male crime. Sociological Quarterly, 44, 243-269.
Felner, R. D., Brand, S., DuBois, D. L., Adan, A. M., Mulhall, P. F., & Evans, E. G. (1995). So-cioeconomic disadvantage, proximal environmental experiences, and socioemotional and academic adjustment in early adolescence: Investigation of a mediated effects model. Child Development, 66, 774-792.
Ford, E. S. & Bowman, B. A. (1999). Serum and red blood cell folate concentrations, race, and education: Findings from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 69, 476-481.
Gailliot, M.T., Baumeister, R.F., DeWall, C.N., Maner, J.K., Plant, E.A., Tice, D.M., Brewer, L.E., & Schmeichel, B.J. (in press). Self-Control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: Willpower is more than a metaphor. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Gesch, C. B., Hammond, S. M., Hampson, S. E., Eves, A. & Crowder, M. J. (2002). Influence of supplementary vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids on the antisocial behaviour of young adult prisoners: Randomised, placebo-controlled trial. British Journal of Psychia-try, 181, 22-28.
Gottfredson, M. R., & Hirschi, T. (1990). A general theory of crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Grantham-McGregor, S., & Ani, C. (2001). A review of studies on the effect of iron deficiency on cognitive development in children. Journal of Nutrition, 131, 649S-666S.
Hogan, M. (1995). Unequal justice: A question of color. Social Pathology, 1, 270-276.
Jensen, A. R. (1997). The puzzle of nongenetic variance. In R. J. Sternberg & E. L. Grigorenko (Eds.), Intelligence, heredity, and environment (pp. 42–88). Cambridge, England: Cam-bridge University Press.
Liu, J. H., Raine, A., Venables, P. H., & Mednick, S. A. (2004). Malnutrition at age 3 years and externalizing behavior problems at ages 8, 11, and 17 years. American Journal of Psychi-atry, 161, 2005-2013.
Lozoff, B. Jimenez, E., Hagen, J., Mollen, E., & Wolf, A. W. (2000). Poorer behavioral and de-velopmental outcome more than 10 years after treatment for iron deficiency in infancy. Pediatrics, 105, 51.
Osborne, J. W. (1997). Race and academic disidentification. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 728-735.
Rushton, J. P. (1995). Race, evolution, and behavior. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publish-ers.
Rushton, J.P. (1990). Race and crime. Canadian Journal of Criminology, 32, 315-334.
Sampson, R. J. (1987). Urban black violence: the effect of male joblessness and family disrup-tion. American Journal of Sociology, 93, 348-382.
Schmeichel, B. J., Vohs, K. D., & Baumeister, R. F. (2003). Intellectual performance and ego depletion: Role of the self in logical reasoning and other information processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 33-46.
Schoenthaler, S. J., & Bier, I. D. (2000). The effect of vitamin-mineral supplementation on juve-nile delinquency among American schoolchildren: a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Journal of Alternative Complementary Medicine, 6, 7-17.
Schoenthaler, S., Amos, S., Doraz, W., Kelly, M.A., Muedeking, G., & Wakefield, J. (1997). The effect of randomized vitamin-mineral supplementation on violent and non-violent antisocial behavior among incarcerated juveniles. Journal of Nutritional and Environ-mental Medicine, 7, 343-352.
Schoenthaler, S.J., Amos, S.P., Eysenck, H.J., Peritz, E., & Yudkin, J. (1991). Controlled trial of vitamin-mineral supplementation: Effects on intelligence and performance. Personality and Individual Differences, 12, 351-362.
Steele, C. M. (1997). A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape the intellectual identities and performance of women and African Americans. American Psychologist, 52, 613-629.
Wilson, W. J. (1987). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
