In conversations with friends in even the liberal mainstream (where I belonged fairly comfortably, too, as late as the beginning of Obama’s second term), I find such a stubborn and sometimes even angry resistance to seriously considering the impact of incentives in influencing human behavior. I’m hardly an economist or even proponent of a traditional, reductive rational actor model of human behavior. We’re animals and individual psychology and group dynamics count for a lot, too. But the best I come up with is these friends, who are all financially comfortable people with advanced degrees living in large cities, is that they consider a concern re: incentivizing bad behavior to be a species of victim-blaming. They seem to consider all people in victim categories (by identity or poverty) as lacking agency. They don’t seem to appreciate that the structures and incentives and personal examples they create and model for their own kids, almost without thinking, might actually be important to other kids, other adults, even when they lack some of their and their own kids’ advantages. I keep seeing an inability or unwillingness to consider incentives as one element in so many disastrous policies being promulgated from the left. Certainly, this isn’t a new story, but the variety and reach of such programs keeps expanding unchecked. To check such irresponsible excesses seems to require such bad outcomes a coalition of unwoke but implicitly approved of minorities and disaffected liberals revolts. Anyone else already has been or will be labeled “alt-right” or “far-right”, smeared and silenced.
“A substantial number of men who had [no] history of dysphoria or gender-nonconformity, but who did have a history of serious sexual violence, were suddenly deciding that they were women and should be cohabiting with female prisoners.”
In the American judicial system, defendants who qualify for dual diagnosis (substance and mental health disorder) can obtain more favorable and lenient punishments. For anyone that has worked in criminal justice, this has been an obvious opportunity for fraud, since the mental health claims are nearly always self-reported but the substance abuse claims are easy to verify since many felons like to party.
I've personally witnessed defendants laughing and high-fiving after sentencing when a crank of a shrink opined to the judge that the defendant qualified for a dual diagnosis that was likely a decent bit of acting. There are shrinks who've made careers out of this, and like any other credentialed and lucrative professions the temptation to fudge a few things to justify a result or diagnosis is simply too good to pass up when the Public Defender is eager for your services.
Hired guns in the trans activist world are similarly incentivized. Grifters ensue.
If, heaven forbid, I ever had to go to prison, and they were willing to send me to women's prison instead of the men's, just on my say-so, it would be a no brainer. You'd be crazy not to opt for that.
The full story of the transition from sex to gender in English prisons from the 1980s onwards, and the crucial role of queer theory in this transformation, was published in this article (free access): https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/article/2/1/183
In conversations with friends in even the liberal mainstream (where I belonged fairly comfortably, too, as late as the beginning of Obama’s second term), I find such a stubborn and sometimes even angry resistance to seriously considering the impact of incentives in influencing human behavior. I’m hardly an economist or even proponent of a traditional, reductive rational actor model of human behavior. We’re animals and individual psychology and group dynamics count for a lot, too. But the best I come up with is these friends, who are all financially comfortable people with advanced degrees living in large cities, is that they consider a concern re: incentivizing bad behavior to be a species of victim-blaming. They seem to consider all people in victim categories (by identity or poverty) as lacking agency. They don’t seem to appreciate that the structures and incentives and personal examples they create and model for their own kids, almost without thinking, might actually be important to other kids, other adults, even when they lack some of their and their own kids’ advantages. I keep seeing an inability or unwillingness to consider incentives as one element in so many disastrous policies being promulgated from the left. Certainly, this isn’t a new story, but the variety and reach of such programs keeps expanding unchecked. To check such irresponsible excesses seems to require such bad outcomes a coalition of unwoke but implicitly approved of minorities and disaffected liberals revolts. Anyone else already has been or will be labeled “alt-right” or “far-right”, smeared and silenced.
Is there a ‘no’ missing from this sentence?
“A substantial number of men who had [no] history of dysphoria or gender-nonconformity, but who did have a history of serious sexual violence, were suddenly deciding that they were women and should be cohabiting with female prisoners.”
In the American judicial system, defendants who qualify for dual diagnosis (substance and mental health disorder) can obtain more favorable and lenient punishments. For anyone that has worked in criminal justice, this has been an obvious opportunity for fraud, since the mental health claims are nearly always self-reported but the substance abuse claims are easy to verify since many felons like to party.
I've personally witnessed defendants laughing and high-fiving after sentencing when a crank of a shrink opined to the judge that the defendant qualified for a dual diagnosis that was likely a decent bit of acting. There are shrinks who've made careers out of this, and like any other credentialed and lucrative professions the temptation to fudge a few things to justify a result or diagnosis is simply too good to pass up when the Public Defender is eager for your services.
Hired guns in the trans activist world are similarly incentivized. Grifters ensue.
The UK is an Orwellian farce. State instituions covered up grooming gang abuse of thousands of girls because they were scared of being called racist.
If, heaven forbid, I ever had to go to prison, and they were willing to send me to women's prison instead of the men's, just on my say-so, it would be a no brainer. You'd be crazy not to opt for that.
The full story of the transition from sex to gender in English prisons from the 1980s onwards, and the crucial role of queer theory in this transformation, was published in this article (free access): https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/article/2/1/183
Great article. Thank you
Boys will be boys.
I almost accidentally commented that this is one of your best-written and -reasoned articles and then remembered it's a guest post. ;)
Either way kudos all around.
TYTY for article. Great all-around. (Comments, too. :-)