Kathryn Paige Harden

They might even enjoy aggressing against other children.

And I think that's an example of behavior that, one, doesn't respond very well to punishment.

So punishing those children doesn't usually make them aggressive.

less aggressive, and two, really speaks to what a scientific mystery antisocial behavior still is.

Why do some children

grow up without that pro-social empathy that is such a standard part or a normal part of human child development?

And even more importantly, what can we do to treat it?

What can we do to encourage those children to behave more pro-socially?

I think that's a scientific question that's understudied and so important to answer.

It depends on how you measure it.

If you're measuring it by the most serious manifestations, which would be murder, homicide, violent crime, that has been going down since the 1990s.

There was a brief uptick

after the pandemic and it's on the decline again.

Most people don't know this.

They don't realize that violent crime has been going down on average for about 30 years.

And it's still a mystery as to why.

It's been accompanied by a decline in risk taking across the board.

So murder rates are down.

Teenage pregnancy is down.

Smoking cigarettes is down.