Every day thousands of crimes of varying severity are committed in the world. As a rule, criminals become people with a low level of education and no stable source of income. Also, people who have addictions and do not know how to manage their emotions have an increased tendency to break the law. During crime investigations, experts often notice striking common features that are inherent in lawbreakers. A recent study showed a less subtle detail: it turns out that people with a low resting heart rate are more likely to commit crimes. Is it time to start anxiously measuring your pulse?
Heart rate can tell a lot about a person
The authors of the scientific publication Science Alert said that heart rate can indicate a person’s propensity to commit crimes. This pattern was identified by scientists back in 2015, but at that time the study was conducted only with the participation of men. Recently, an article appeared in the scientific journal PLOS ONE proving the presence of such a trend among women.
What kind of people commit crimes
Scientists from the USA, Sweden and Finland studied data on 12,499 women who joined the army at 18 years old. At the time of admission, their pulse and blood pressure were measured – this is done during every medical examination, and it was these data that were important to the researchers. After that, they found out which of them were prosecuted in the next 40 years.
The main thing that interested scientists in the study was the heart rate and criminal history of the participants
As it turned out, there weren’t very many criminals among former military girls, but they still existed. The authors of the scientific work noticed an interesting pattern: women with a pulse of less than 69 beats per minute at rest committed crimes 35% more often than people with a pulse of more than 83 beats per minute. From this it was concluded that a low heart rate is a likely indicator that a person is prone to breaking the law. And this works for both men and women.
Scientists have also discovered another interesting trend. Data analysis showed that people with low blood pressure are most often prosecuted. Thus, women with a blood pressure of 113 millimeters of mercury or lower were 26% more likely to commit crimes than women with higher blood pressure.
Why crimes are committed
Scientists do not know what exactly the pattern between heart rate, blood pressure and propensity to crime is connected to. There is an assumption that people are driven to break the law by low activity in the nervous system, as evidenced by an overly calm heart rhythm. To make it more active, people may unconsciously seek thrills in life and take risks more often.
Perhaps a weak pulse and low blood pressure push people to take risks
But the results of scientific work should not be taken too seriously. If you have now measured your pulse and blood pressure and they are low, this does not mean that you should expect something bad from you. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, many factors influence people’s tendency to commit crimes, such as level of education, availability of work, and so on. If a person has lived in a disadvantaged area since childhood, the chances of becoming a criminal also increase many times over – the environment greatly influences the person. And if a man or woman is doing well in their family, work, and so on, because of low heart rate and blood pressure they will not break the law.
You will be interested:What generation of people committed the most crimes?
Crime prediction technologies
This scientific discovery could be used to improve crime prediction technologies. Such means really exist, and they can predict violations of the law with high accuracy. For example, in the article “How artificial intelligence predicts crimes with 90% accuracy,” we explained how such technology works using the example of the city of Chicago. If you are interested in high technology, we highly recommend reading it!
The police have long been using high technology to catch criminals
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Also on our website there is material about how in the future the police will investigate space crimes. This process will be completely different from what it is on Earth, because in space conditions evidence disappears faster or can be greatly distorted due to environmental conditions. Read more in the article “How the police will investigate crimes committed in space.”