WEBVTT NOTE Misesian Praxeology: An Illustration from the Field of Sociology of Delinquency 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.480 It gives me a great pleasure to introduce our Mises Memorial Lecturer, Renaud Filliou. 2 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:13.480 Renaud is professor of sociology at the University of Lille in France. 3 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:16.880 He first studied the natural sciences and received an engineering degree from the Ecole 4 00:00:16.880 --> 00:00:19.180 Centrale de Lyon. 5 00:00:19.180 --> 00:00:23.940 He then went on to study philosophy, sociology and economics and received graduate degrees 6 00:00:23.940 --> 00:00:29.880 in those fields and then a PhD in sociology from the Sorbonne in Paris. 7 00:00:29.880 --> 00:00:35.680 He has done extensive research and very very good research and actually cutting-edge research 8 00:00:35.680 --> 00:00:40.100 and teaching in Austrian economics and has recently published a book in French that introduces 9 00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:45.760 the main techniques of the school to the French audiences. Currently he's working on Austrian 10 00:00:45.760 --> 00:00:52.760 macroeconomics as well as price theory and epistemology, a true renaissance man, Renaud. 11 00:00:59.880 --> 00:01:11.880 So it's difficult for me to express with words how honored I am to have the opportunity to give this 2012 Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture. 12 00:01:11.880 --> 00:01:18.880 So I wish to thank Professor Joe Salerno, of course, for the invitation, all the staff here at the Mises Institute, 13 00:01:18.880 --> 00:01:23.880 for the flawless organization, and Professor Guido Huisman for his support. 14 00:01:23.880 --> 00:01:34.880 Von Mises, Von Mises is the economist I most admire, as is probably also the case for many people in this room, and he fully deserves our admiration. 15 00:01:34.880 --> 00:01:40.880 As an outstanding scientist, a great epistemologist and a leading fighter for liberty. 16 00:01:40.880 --> 00:01:51.880 And in this lecture, I want to pay tribute to the depth and relevance of his conception of theoretical social science as praxeology. 17 00:01:51.880 --> 00:01:59.760 Misesian praxeology rests upon two main pillars, first, the concept of action, and second, 18 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:04.760 the a prioristic character of the theories of human action. 19 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:10.640 When he developed these insights, von Mises had mainly economic science in mind, and that's 20 00:02:10.640 --> 00:02:12.920 perfectly understandable. 21 00:02:12.920 --> 00:02:19.240 Now I would like to illustrate his principles of action and of a priorism with the help 22 00:02:19.240 --> 00:02:24.080 of another branch of social science, namely the sociology of delinquency. 23 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:30.160 And this survey will offer an unusual but also, I hope, an instructive perspective on the 24 00:02:30.160 --> 00:02:35.240 foundation of social sciences as elaborated by von Mises. 25 00:02:35.240 --> 00:02:42.000 The title of von Mises' greatest treatise, Human Action, clearly indicates the foremost 26 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:45.880 importance that he attached to the concept of action. 27 00:02:45.880 --> 00:02:50.720 And his whole theoretical and epistemological edifice is built upon this key concept. 28 00:02:50.720 --> 00:02:53.320 It devotes many pages to his presentation. 29 00:02:53.320 --> 00:03:00.120 His starting point is the definition of action as a conscious or purposeful behaviour, and 30 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:02.920 he then deduces the main components implied in this concept. 31 00:03:02.920 --> 00:03:09.240 So I will review them very briefly, beginning by ends and means, the two most basic elements 32 00:03:09.240 --> 00:03:16.800 of a Theory of Action, causality, the relationship between ends and means implies the category 33 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:24.600 of causality, the means at the very least are causes and the ends are effects, rationality, 34 00:03:24.600 --> 00:03:29.780 an action is necessarily rational in the sense that it's always adapted to the end pursued 35 00:03:29.780 --> 00:03:34.520 on account of the personal knowledge of the actor, but the choice between ends on the 36 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:41.520 is a value judgment that specifically belongs to the acting person and is neither rational nor irrational. 37 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:43.520 Scale of values. 38 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:49.520 So the ends envisioned by an actor can be crudely materialistic or highly refined, 39 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:56.520 but whatever their concrete content, their value or importance for the acting person is purely subjective 40 00:03:56.520 --> 00:04:03.520 and they are ranked along a scale that is ordinal, no measure or calculation of subjective values is possible. 41 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:11.520 Then we have imputation. The means of an action only play an instrumental role in bringing about a chosen end. 42 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:17.520 The value is derivative, it's imputed or ascribed to them from the value of end. 43 00:04:17.520 --> 00:04:25.520 Profit, psychic profit or loss. An action, if successful, will bring a subjective or psychic profit, 44 00:04:25.520 --> 00:04:31.520 an unmeasurable but positive difference between the value of the end reached and the value of the end foregone. 45 00:04:31.520 --> 00:04:35.520 And if the action isn't successful, there's a psychic loss. 46 00:04:35.520 --> 00:04:39.520 Then we have time, when action necessarily takes place in time. 47 00:04:39.520 --> 00:04:44.520 Its aim is always set in the future, since the present cannot be changed. 48 00:04:44.520 --> 00:04:49.520 Uncertainty. Action also implies change and uncertainty. 49 00:04:49.520 --> 00:04:53.520 If the future was certain, no action could possibly change it. 50 00:04:53.520 --> 00:04:55.520 There would be no role for acting. 51 00:04:55.520 --> 00:05:06.520 Now, in the 1920s and 1930s, von Mises was very busy laying down the foundations for a theory and epistemology of action. 52 00:05:06.520 --> 00:05:17.520 During these same decades, sociologists and criminologists were developing theories in which the core concept was not action, but rather culture. 53 00:05:17.520 --> 00:05:31.520 Modern criminology, or sociology of delinquency, appeared in the 1920s with the classic treatise by Edwin Sutherland, who is considered as the most influential criminologist of the 20th century. 54 00:05:31.520 --> 00:05:37.520 Born in 1883, who was two years younger than von Mises, so they both belonged to the same generation, 55 00:05:37.520 --> 00:05:52.520 and Sutherland developed a famous culturalist theory according to which criminal behaviour is explained by the antisocial or pro-delinquency value system held by the criminal. 56 00:05:52.520 --> 00:05:57.520 More specifically, his theory rests upon two main principles. 57 00:05:57.520 --> 00:06:05.520 First, a learning principle, very simple, delinquency or criminality is learned. 58 00:06:05.520 --> 00:06:11.520 This learning is a socialization process that takes place in small and intimate groups, 59 00:06:11.520 --> 00:06:17.520 where members mainly learn two things, criminal techniques and pro delinquency values. 60 00:06:17.520 --> 00:06:23.520 This idea of learning may seem overly simplistic but it was very important 61 00:06:23.520 --> 00:06:28.520 because it broke with the genetic theories of criminality 62 00:06:28.520 --> 00:06:48.520 The second principle of this culturalist criminology is called differential association, so here each individual belongs to some groups that favor conventional or law-abiding behavior, such as family for instance, and may also belong to groups that favor antisocial or delinquent behavior. 63 00:06:48.520 --> 00:07:01.520 may also belong to groups that favor antisocial or delinquent behavior, such as groups of young delinquent peers. 64 00:07:01.520 --> 00:07:11.520 The individual is confronted to contradictory or conflicting influences. 65 00:07:11.520 --> 00:07:17.520 If antisocial values predominate around the individual, then he will become a delinquent. 66 00:07:17.520 --> 00:07:23.520 and if conventional or pro-social values predominant, then he will comply with the law. 67 00:07:23.520 --> 00:07:32.520 And on a more general level, this explanation belongs to the cultural spreading that was developed by the first Chicago School of Sociology 68 00:07:32.520 --> 00:07:40.520 and which uses the idea of cultural conflict in order to account for the pathologies, including crime of course, 69 00:07:40.520 --> 00:07:46.520 of the great American cities in the first decade of the 20th century. 70 00:07:46.520 --> 00:07:59.520 In the 1950s, two criminologists, Sykes and Mazza, provided one of the first convincing criticisms of this culturalist criminology. 71 00:07:59.520 --> 00:08:10.520 They showed that criminals or delinquents, in fact, do not have a set of values different from that of the general population. 72 00:08:10.520 --> 00:08:24.520 And they came to this conclusion through an investigation of the arguments used by the criminals themselves when they tried to justify their own illegal actions in court. 73 00:08:24.520 --> 00:08:31.520 And they observed that these offenders do not challenge the conventional value system. 74 00:08:31.520 --> 00:08:37.120 Rather, they use what these authors famously called neutralization techniques 75 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:40.560 that help them to excuse their own behavior. 76 00:08:40.560 --> 00:08:44.240 For instance, they use the technique of the denial of responsibility. 77 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:48.240 They justify, try to justify their illegal behavior 78 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:51.840 by saying that they were pushed by an overwhelming force 79 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:57.280 because they were drunk or needing drug or angered and so on. 80 00:08:57.280 --> 00:09:00.160 Now, what's very interesting here is that 81 00:09:00.160 --> 00:09:05.180 But in all these kinds of arguments used by the offenders themselves, the conventional 82 00:09:05.180 --> 00:09:13.480 system of moral and legal norms is implicitly taken for granted. It's not criticized, it's 83 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:23.440 not attacked. It is acknowledged and circumvented. So even if the delinquents have specific subcultures, 84 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:29.560 those are not directly opposed to the conventional and usual morals prevalent in society. Criminals 85 00:09:29.560 --> 00:09:36.560 in their own words are not committed to a pro-delinquency system of values. 86 00:09:36.560 --> 00:09:43.220 The culturalist explanation by Sutherland is totally contradicted by these observations. 87 00:09:43.220 --> 00:09:52.220 And also, the theoretical question of the cause of delinquency now drastically changes. 88 00:09:52.220 --> 00:09:58.580 Sutherland tried to answer the question, how do some people acquire an anti-social value 89 00:09:58.580 --> 00:10:05.180 The system that turns them into criminals, but now the question becomes more subtle. 90 00:10:05.180 --> 00:10:11.440 Why do some people break the moral and legal rules to which they otherwise believe, even 91 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:13.980 if not very strongly? 92 00:10:13.980 --> 00:10:20.500 And at this point, the sociology of delinquency is ready to take a praxeological turn that 93 00:10:20.500 --> 00:10:26.660 is to some extent similar to the subjectivist revolution that took place in economics at 94 00:10:26.660 --> 00:10:29.700 in the end of the 19th century. 95 00:10:29.700 --> 00:10:35.260 And indeed, once the culturalist approach is discarded, the Misesian conception of action 96 00:10:35.260 --> 00:10:41.340 becomes highly relevant, and there are two reasons why this is so. 97 00:10:41.340 --> 00:10:47.420 In the culturalist approach, delinquency is an end in itself. 98 00:10:47.420 --> 00:10:50.780 Breaking the law is valued as such. 99 00:10:50.780 --> 00:10:55.040 Now praxeology has nothing to say about ends and valued judgments. 100 00:10:55.040 --> 00:11:02.120 In the words of von Mises, its object is means, not ends. 101 00:11:02.120 --> 00:11:06.560 It does not seek to explain, for instance, why some people choose asceticism while others 102 00:11:06.560 --> 00:11:11.800 choose hedonism, why some people enjoy refined pleasures while other people enjoy good pleasures 103 00:11:11.800 --> 00:11:13.560 and so on and so forth. 104 00:11:13.560 --> 00:11:20.880 So if the difference between criminals and non-criminals was their respective value systems, 105 00:11:20.880 --> 00:11:26.520 and praxeology would not have much to say about criminality and maybe nothing at all. 106 00:11:26.520 --> 00:11:31.080 The question why do some people choose alinquency would be similar to the question why do some 107 00:11:31.080 --> 00:11:33.880 people enjoy classical music. 108 00:11:33.880 --> 00:11:41.240 But if the moral values are more or less the same, they cannot by themselves alone explain 109 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:47.800 why an individual commits a criminal act and another one in similar circumstances does 110 00:11:47.800 --> 00:11:48.800 not. 111 00:11:48.800 --> 00:11:56.560 The difference between criminality and non-criminality essentially becomes a choice of means, not 112 00:11:56.560 --> 00:11:57.560 of ends. 113 00:11:57.560 --> 00:12:05.920 And to that extent, delinquent acts are perfectly legitimate objects of a praxeological analysis. 114 00:12:05.920 --> 00:12:11.200 Quebec criminologist Maurice Cusson has consistently followed this line of analysis. 115 00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:16.720 He has shown that delinquent action indeed follows the same kinds of ends as law-abiding 116 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:23.240 Action, such as the search for wealth, prestige, power, the difference is that the means are 117 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:27.040 obtained through theft, fraud or illegal physical violence. 118 00:12:27.040 --> 00:12:33.480 There is a second reason why sociology of delinquency was ready in the 50s to take a 119 00:12:33.480 --> 00:12:37.720 praxeological turn and break with culturalism. 120 00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:42.720 The culturalist approach rests upon a very naive conception of the relationship between 121 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:45.000 culture and behavior. 122 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:51.080 Culture is supposed to follow the rules prescribed by the culture or subculture in which the 123 00:12:51.080 --> 00:12:53.340 individual has been socialized. 124 00:12:53.340 --> 00:13:00.600 And if I can use this metaphor, culture is conceived as a computer program and the individual 125 00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:06.400 supposedly follows the cultural moral code just like a computer follows the steps of 126 00:13:06.400 --> 00:13:08.240 a program. 127 00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:13.160 Now as we have seen, offenders believe in the conventional moral code, even if not very 128 00:13:13.160 --> 00:13:26.480 In the culturalist framework, this situation is paradoxical, and very difficult to account 129 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:27.960 for. 130 00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:33.800 In the Misesian framework, on the other hand, the explanation is straightforward. 131 00:13:33.800 --> 00:13:39.360 Even if a person is reluctant for moral reasons to break the law, she will choose an illegal 132 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:45.760 Act if it brings a higher psychic profit than the alternative legal acts. 133 00:13:45.760 --> 00:13:52.120 Let's suppose that an individual would prefer everything else equal to choose legitimate 134 00:13:52.120 --> 00:13:56.680 means rather than illegal means in order to reach his ends. 135 00:13:56.680 --> 00:14:02.360 In the context of a specific decision, he can nonetheless choose illegal means for the 136 00:14:02.360 --> 00:14:07.280 simple reason that they allow him to reach an end that is sufficiently high on his value 137 00:14:07.280 --> 00:14:08.920 scale. 138 00:14:08.920 --> 00:14:13.920 It is thus very easy to account for the common sense observation that people sometimes break 139 00:14:13.920 --> 00:14:16.440 their own moral code. 140 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:22.120 And to sum up here, the culturalist approach is plagued by a paradox. 141 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:27.040 If an individual has been socialized in a culture, how could he possibly act against 142 00:14:27.040 --> 00:14:29.760 the rules prescribed by this culture? 143 00:14:29.760 --> 00:14:36.520 And this paradox completely disappears when we use the basic praxeological concepts, ends, 144 00:14:36.520 --> 00:14:38.960 Means and Psychic Profit. 145 00:14:38.960 --> 00:14:42.360 The praxeological solution to this culturalist paradox 146 00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:45.960 is a bit reminiscent of the marginalist solution 147 00:14:45.960 --> 00:14:49.440 to the paradox of value in economics. 148 00:14:49.440 --> 00:14:53.360 After this criticism of or this critic of culturalism, 149 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:56.360 the next significant theory developed 150 00:14:56.360 --> 00:14:59.040 in the field of sociology of delinquency 151 00:14:59.040 --> 00:15:02.880 is the theory of social control. 152 00:15:02.880 --> 00:15:05.400 This theory clearly belongs, as I will show, 153 00:15:05.400 --> 00:15:14.080 to the Praxeological Paradigm Framework Very briefly, this theory explains why individuals 154 00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:22.320 commit more or less serious delinquent acts by the fact that their bond to society is 155 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:24.160 weak or broken. 156 00:15:24.160 --> 00:15:29.760 Now the expression bond to society is not very Misesian to say the least. 157 00:15:29.760 --> 00:15:35.960 It seems to imply a holistic conception of society that von Mises forcefully criticizes. 158 00:15:35.960 --> 00:15:43.080 But society here is not at all conceived as a separate entity that exists above and beyond 159 00:15:43.080 --> 00:15:44.080 the individual. 160 00:15:44.080 --> 00:15:50.200 And I'm going to show that, in fact, social control theory can easily be expressed in 161 00:15:50.200 --> 00:15:53.000 a praxeological language. 162 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:58.560 Let's follow the presentation offered by one of the most prominent exponents of social 163 00:15:58.560 --> 00:16:05.380 Control Theory and a great sociologist, the American Travis Hershey. 164 00:16:05.380 --> 00:16:12.240 In his well-known book, Causes of Delinquency, he explains that the bonds to society mainly 165 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:20.240 consist in the attachment to others and the commitment to conventional lines of action. 166 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:26.120 Both of these elements have a straightforward praxeological interpretation. 167 00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:33.000 The attachment to others, to family, to friends, to peers, to co-workers and so on, is the 168 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:41.200 fact to care about them, to be sensitive to their needs, and in terms of action, attachment 169 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:49.600 is reflected in lending a sympathetic ear and providing help or advice. 170 00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:56.040 These acts can be carried out as hands in themselves, when it pleases us to help others 171 00:16:56.040 --> 00:16:57.920 for the sake of helping. 172 00:16:57.920 --> 00:17:04.640 But quite often, they are also means, means for the individual who wants to get in return 173 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:09.200 some marks of respect, affection, love or friendly help. 174 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:15.720 And in order to get these valuable services, the individual chooses to create and maintain 175 00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:23.240 relationships with other people through friendship, wedding, parenthood and other kinds of associations. 176 00:17:23.240 --> 00:17:31.780 So attachment, as a means towards ends, clearly falls under a praxeological analysis. 177 00:17:31.780 --> 00:17:36.700 The second element, commitment to conventional lines of action. 178 00:17:36.700 --> 00:17:43.500 This commitment explains why most of the people, most of the time, do not carry out any criminal 179 00:17:43.500 --> 00:17:44.500 act. 180 00:17:44.500 --> 00:17:51.740 This is very simply because if they were caught, these conventional lines of action would be 181 00:17:51.740 --> 00:17:55.540 threatened by legal or informal sanctions. 182 00:17:55.540 --> 00:18:00.580 Their educational career would be at risk, or their job, or their family life, or their 183 00:18:00.580 --> 00:18:03.420 spare time activities, etc. 184 00:18:03.420 --> 00:18:07.660 The praxeological translation is here obvious. 185 00:18:07.660 --> 00:18:14.460 The values of the ends sought through conventional lines of action are higher than those of delinquent 186 00:18:14.460 --> 00:18:23.460 In other words, carrying out a criminal act would, in this case, result in a psychic loss. 187 00:18:23.460 --> 00:18:30.460 It's also interesting to note that Hirschi uses a correct conception of subjective cost. 188 00:18:30.460 --> 00:18:36.460 The cost of a delinquent act is not the legal and informal sanctions that may ensue. 189 00:18:36.460 --> 00:18:44.460 It is the ends, and strictly the value of the ends, that could not be reached anymore if these sanctions were incurred. 190 00:18:44.460 --> 00:18:49.460 So this is a nice illustration of the Austrian concept of subjective cost. 191 00:18:49.460 --> 00:18:56.460 To sum up, the theory of social control explains that the weaker is the bond to society of an individual, 192 00:18:56.460 --> 00:19:02.460 the less he is attached and committed, the more he tends to carry out delinquent acts. 193 00:19:02.460 --> 00:19:10.460 And this theory can be considered in the interpretation I have given as a praxeological theory. 194 00:19:10.460 --> 00:19:15.260 Most people follow the rules most of the time because there is a social control inciting 195 00:19:15.260 --> 00:19:21.580 to conformity and the avoidance of deviant acts, but this control is not an external 196 00:19:21.580 --> 00:19:24.700 force emanating from a holistic society. 197 00:19:24.700 --> 00:19:31.540 It can and should be analyzed in terms of ends, means, instrumental rationality and 198 00:19:31.540 --> 00:19:33.460 and Psychic Profit. 199 00:19:33.460 --> 00:19:39.060 Now if the theory of social control is right in that the bonds of delinquents to society 200 00:19:39.060 --> 00:19:47.140 are weak, then the question of group delinquency immediately arises. 201 00:19:47.140 --> 00:19:55.340 How is it that delinquency is quite often a group phenomenon, especially juvenile delinquency? 202 00:19:55.340 --> 00:20:00.900 Are not delinquents tightly bonded to the group of peers with which they carry out their 203 00:20:00.900 --> 00:20:07.040 A delinquent activity, and this was the starting point of the Culturalist Theory, whose premise 204 00:20:07.040 --> 00:20:13.900 is that delinquency requires an interpersonal transmission of techniques and values that 205 00:20:13.900 --> 00:20:19.740 can only take place in a small and tightly-knit group. This is pure Culturalist Theory. Social 206 00:20:19.740 --> 00:20:26.020 control theory, on the other hand, claims that delinquents are weakly bonded even to 207 00:20:26.020 --> 00:20:33.140 to their delinquent peers, a fact that has indeed been corroborated by empirical study. 208 00:20:33.140 --> 00:20:38.120 A simple and convincing praxeological explanation of group delinquency has been provided by 209 00:20:38.120 --> 00:20:42.940 Maurice Cusson, whom I have quoted before. 210 00:20:42.940 --> 00:20:51.060 He shows that a delinquent act is easier and less risky to perform when in group. 211 00:20:51.060 --> 00:20:56.060 In a burglary, for instance, accomplices are quite helpful. 212 00:20:56.060 --> 00:21:00.900 They can monitor the area, help in picking up and carrying more spoils. 213 00:21:00.900 --> 00:21:04.820 The burglary can thus be quicker and safer for the offenders. 214 00:21:04.820 --> 00:21:10.420 In a hold-up or a robbery, a group of criminals is more frightening than a single individual 215 00:21:10.420 --> 00:21:16.940 and reduces the risk that the victims will refuse to comply, flee or even attack the 216 00:21:16.940 --> 00:21:17.940 offenders. 217 00:21:17.940 --> 00:21:24.580 In the case of shoplifting, the accomplices can distract the seller while the stealing 218 00:21:24.580 --> 00:21:31.660 goes on smoothly. Furthermore, in the case of teenagers, the members of the group can 219 00:21:31.660 --> 00:21:38.900 turn delinquency into a sort of game in which each one challenges the others to perform 220 00:21:38.900 --> 00:21:46.500 delinquent acts. With a group, delinquency is safer, quicker, more efficient and possibly 221 00:21:46.500 --> 00:21:54.500 also funnier. In other words, constituting a group is a means to reach the valuable ends 222 00:21:54.500 --> 00:22:01.020 looked for through delinquency. The culturalist theory explains the constitution of delinquent 223 00:22:01.020 --> 00:22:08.420 groups through a quite mysterious and largely ad hoc socialization process. But we see that 224 00:22:08.420 --> 00:22:14.900 the explanation provided by Cusson, on the other hand, is crystal clear and rests upon 225 00:22:14.900 --> 00:22:17.820 on solid praxeological ground. 226 00:22:17.820 --> 00:22:26.100 Let's now turn to another crucial feature of delinquent action, namely its impulsiveness. 227 00:22:26.100 --> 00:22:32.700 The concept of impulsiveness can be translated into the economic language as high time preference, 228 00:22:32.700 --> 00:22:40.400 and again here, as we shall see, the Misesian conception of action is highly relevant. 229 00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:44.720 The impulsiveness of teenage delinquents and of adult criminals has been noticed for a 230 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:48.040 long time and by several authors. 231 00:22:48.040 --> 00:22:53.880 The most detailed analysis to date has been developed by Gottfriedson and Hirschi in the 232 00:22:53.880 --> 00:23:00.400 book which is my personal favorite on the whole subject of delinquency, A General Theory 233 00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:04.120 of Crime, 1990. 234 00:23:04.120 --> 00:23:12.200 The starting point is a description of typical delinquent acts, such as burglary, robbery, 235 00:23:12.200 --> 00:23:15.120 homicide, auto theft and so on. 236 00:23:15.120 --> 00:23:22.280 Here is, for instance, a description of the typical burglary. 237 00:23:22.280 --> 00:23:31.180 I quote, a young male or group of males knocks on a door not far from where he lives, finding 238 00:23:31.180 --> 00:23:35.660 When he is taking no one home, he tests the door to see if it's open. 239 00:23:35.660 --> 00:23:42.620 And if it's open, as it often is, he walks in and looks to see if the dwelling contains 240 00:23:42.620 --> 00:23:48.540 anything of interest that he can quickly consume or easily haul away. 241 00:23:48.540 --> 00:23:54.980 In most cases, the proceeds of the burglary are quickly consumed, used up, given away 242 00:23:54.980 --> 00:23:58.620 or discarded." 243 00:23:58.620 --> 00:24:05.980 Of course, not all burglaries fit this pattern, but this is the typical burglary and the basic 244 00:24:05.980 --> 00:24:13.620 nature of this activity can only be deduced from a typical scenario, not from the very 245 00:24:13.620 --> 00:24:21.220 rare and unusual burglaries reported by the mass media or from those entirely fabricated 246 00:24:21.220 --> 00:24:24.060 for movie audiences. 247 00:24:24.060 --> 00:24:28.960 Based on this understanding of what burglaries and other acts of violence or fraud typically 248 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:39.900 look like, Gottfriedson and Hirschi conclude that almost all delinquent acts share a series 249 00:24:39.900 --> 00:24:44.540 of essential features that go as follows. 250 00:24:44.540 --> 00:24:49.180 They provide a quick and easy gratification of desires. 251 00:24:49.180 --> 00:24:55.520 They are exciting and thrilling but offer few, if any, long-term benefits. 252 00:24:55.520 --> 00:25:01.420 They require little skill or planning and they show insensitivity to others since they 253 00:25:01.420 --> 00:25:03.780 result in suffering of the victim. 254 00:25:03.780 --> 00:25:12.040 So in short, the typical delinquent act displays all the characteristics of an impulsive act. 255 00:25:12.040 --> 00:25:19.400 And people who commit this kind of act on a regular basis can be labeled impulsive. 256 00:25:19.400 --> 00:25:26.520 They tend to grab very short-term gratifications while jeopardizing their long-term projects, 257 00:25:26.520 --> 00:25:29.040 assuming they have any. 258 00:25:29.040 --> 00:25:36.080 In the terminology of Gottfriedson and Hirschi, they are characterized by a low self-control. 259 00:25:36.080 --> 00:25:45.000 Maurice Cusson uses a suggestive expression, he calls this psychological feature presentism. 260 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.960 And in economics, of course, we would say that they have a very high time preference. 261 00:25:49.960 --> 00:25:57.120 Now, in the very first chapter of his treatise, von Mises devotes a section to the analysis 262 00:25:57.120 --> 00:26:01.520 of the relationship between impulses and action. 263 00:26:01.520 --> 00:26:08.380 He explains that, of course, people have impulses, impulses to grab things that are not theirs, 264 00:26:08.380 --> 00:26:12.240 to molest people that they dislike, and so on. 265 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:17.920 But most of the time, they choose to resist these impulses because yielding to them would 266 00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:20.240 be much too costly. 267 00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:23.160 And this, what is it? 268 00:26:23.160 --> 00:26:27.120 It's the core of the theory of social control. 269 00:26:27.120 --> 00:26:34.520 And von Mises adds two very interesting considerations first. When an individual yields to his impulses, 270 00:26:34.520 --> 00:26:41.420 it's still an action, not an automatic behaviour. Emotions, impulses affect the terms of the 271 00:26:41.420 --> 00:26:49.040 choices faced by the actors, but they do not prevent nor replace action. Anger, for instance, 272 00:26:49.040 --> 00:26:56.720 may favour the use of physical violence as a means. But whether in anger, in fear or 273 00:26:56.720 --> 00:27:04.720 For in a quiet mood, the person acts nonetheless. She consciously uses means in order to reach a chosen end. 274 00:27:04.720 --> 00:27:15.720 And here is his second consideration. The reason for yielding to an impulse is to be found in high time preference. 275 00:27:15.720 --> 00:27:23.720 The benefits from an impulsive act are immediate, but the negative consequences are often suffered at a later date. 276 00:27:23.720 --> 00:27:29.960 So, the higher the time preference, the more the future inconveniences are disregarded and 277 00:27:29.960 --> 00:27:34.200 the more likely the person will yield to her impulses. 278 00:27:34.200 --> 00:27:42.680 And this, this is the core of the theory of low self-control by Gottfriedson and Hirschi. 279 00:27:42.680 --> 00:27:48.080 So the analysis offered by von Mises on the subject of impulses, even though it's quite 280 00:27:48.080 --> 00:27:51.180 short, is brilliant. 281 00:27:51.180 --> 00:28:01.180 He anticipates some of the most important theoretical developments that have taken place in the following decades in the study of delinquency. 282 00:28:01.180 --> 00:28:08.180 A very important phenomenon can also be explained with the help of the concepts of impulsiveness and time preference. 283 00:28:08.180 --> 00:28:16.180 It's the relationship between age and delinquency, which is called the age curve. 284 00:28:16.180 --> 00:28:25.540 So let's take a look at the following figures that show the relation between the age of offenders and indicators of delinquency. 285 00:28:25.540 --> 00:28:35.020 The first one here, age curve male criminal offenders, England and Wales, 1842, 1844. 286 00:28:35.020 --> 00:28:43.300 Second one, age curve of male criminals at first conviction, England, 1908. 287 00:28:43.300 --> 00:28:51.300 and the last one, Age Curve of Arrest for Property Crimes in the United States, 1999. 288 00:28:51.300 --> 00:28:56.220 So all these curves are from very different years and very different countries, 289 00:28:56.220 --> 00:28:59.660 but they show exactly the same pattern. 290 00:28:59.660 --> 00:29:06.540 The tendency to commit delinquent acts peaks around age 18, then quickly diminishes. 291 00:29:06.540 --> 00:29:12.940 So a massive and natural phenomenon of rehabilitation occurs with age. 292 00:29:12.940 --> 00:29:16.020 How can this phenomenon be accounted for? 293 00:29:16.020 --> 00:29:19.220 Certainly not by the culturist theory, 294 00:29:19.220 --> 00:29:23.620 which is in fact contradicted by this pattern. 295 00:29:23.620 --> 00:29:27.300 Why would small primary groups of individuals, 296 00:29:27.300 --> 00:29:29.660 socialized within delinquency, 297 00:29:29.660 --> 00:29:35.100 why would they tend to dissolve and disappear after age 18? 298 00:29:35.100 --> 00:29:38.140 Gottfriedson and Hirschi have provided an explanation 299 00:29:38.140 --> 00:29:41.140 that I find quite convincing for this phenomenon. 300 00:29:41.140 --> 00:29:47.340 They say that when people grow up, they tend to become more and more mature, 301 00:29:47.340 --> 00:29:50.860 which means that their time preference decreases. 302 00:29:50.860 --> 00:29:55.660 They become less and less impulsive with age. 303 00:29:55.660 --> 00:30:00.260 So when people age, they tend to commit less and less delinquent acts, 304 00:30:00.260 --> 00:30:03.260 hence the shape of the age curve. 305 00:30:03.260 --> 00:30:07.700 But it must be made clear that this process that occurs with age 306 00:30:07.700 --> 00:30:10.180 is not a praxeological phenomenon. 307 00:30:10.180 --> 00:30:16.980 It's a psychological phenomenon, of course, and ultimate data from a praxeological viewpoint. 308 00:30:16.980 --> 00:30:24.180 I would now like to take, as a last example, another major development in sociology of delinquency, 309 00:30:24.180 --> 00:30:28.580 the so-called routine activity theory. 310 00:30:28.580 --> 00:30:35.180 It was expounded at the end of the 1970s by Lawrence Cohen and Marcus Falso to criminologists. 311 00:30:35.180 --> 00:30:40.220 And these authors start from a puzzling phenomenon. 312 00:30:40.220 --> 00:30:50.100 Between 1960 and 1975 in the United States, delinquency exploded. 313 00:30:50.100 --> 00:30:56.100 Robberies increased nearly fourfold in just 15 years. 314 00:30:56.100 --> 00:31:00.180 Aggravated assaults increased nearly threefold. 315 00:31:00.180 --> 00:31:07.180 Rapes, homicides, burglaries, each also increased nearly three-fold according to police data. 316 00:31:07.180 --> 00:31:12.180 There is of course much to be criticized in police data. 317 00:31:12.180 --> 00:31:18.180 But since they are collected roughly in the same way year after year, they offer a quite 318 00:31:18.180 --> 00:31:24.180 reliable image of the evolution, not of the level but of the evolution of delinquency. 319 00:31:24.180 --> 00:31:36.180 This explosion of delinquency is all the more enigmatic that this very period was quite favorable from a social and economic point of view. 320 00:31:36.180 --> 00:31:44.180 Unemployment was low, poverty in the official sense was diminishing, and income inequalities were also decreasing. 321 00:31:44.180 --> 00:31:59.180 So it's impossible to explain this surge in delinquency from 1960 to 1975 by the usual scapegoats such as unemployment, poverty and inequality. 322 00:31:59.180 --> 00:32:13.180 The starting point of the explanation offered by Quinn and Felsen for this puzzling phenomenon is a consideration of the minimal conditions for a predatory criminal act to occur. 323 00:32:13.180 --> 00:32:18.780 They contend that three minimal conditions are required. 324 00:32:18.780 --> 00:32:23.380 First, a motivated offender. 325 00:32:23.380 --> 00:32:27.280 Second, a suitable target. 326 00:32:27.280 --> 00:32:31.980 And third, the lack of a capable guardian. 327 00:32:31.980 --> 00:32:37.280 But they immediately cast aside the first condition, a motivated offender. 328 00:32:37.280 --> 00:32:41.480 They take for granted that there are motivated offenders, 329 00:32:41.480 --> 00:32:54.480 always have been and always will be, they focus instead entirely on the two last conditions which are both purely situational and from their own their theory is extremely simple. 330 00:32:54.480 --> 00:33:06.480 If it so happens that suitable targets multiply and that capable guardians are more and more lacking, then we should expect an increase in the number of criminal acts. 331 00:33:06.480 --> 00:33:14.480 And they show that these are just the circumstances that occurred in the period of the 1960s and 70s. 332 00:33:14.480 --> 00:33:18.480 Let's just take one example, burglaries. 333 00:33:18.480 --> 00:33:28.480 Thanks to the increased quantity of consumer goods produced, houses were more and more often filled with suitable targets such as electronic devices, 334 00:33:28.480 --> 00:33:34.480 vinyl records back then, bottles of alcohol, jewelry, fancy clothes, and so on. 335 00:33:34.480 --> 00:33:46.480 Furthermore, in the case of electronic devices, their weight and size significantly decreased during this period so that they became easier to carry away. 336 00:33:46.480 --> 00:33:54.480 As far as capable guardians are concerned, they were indeed more and more often lacking during this period. 337 00:33:54.480 --> 00:34:01.480 Houses were more often empty during the day simply because the proportion of women working was increasing. 338 00:34:01.480 --> 00:34:10.480 Also, families were leaving their houses empty to go on vacations that lasted for longer and longer periods. 339 00:34:10.480 --> 00:34:20.480 So, the routine activity of American households around their house was greatly altered during the 60s and 70s, 340 00:34:20.480 --> 00:34:26.480 and this is the explanation of the name of their theory, routine activity theory. 341 00:34:26.480 --> 00:34:36.480 This alteration in the routine activity explains, for a big part, the upsurge in burglaries, and in other aspects also. 342 00:34:36.480 --> 00:34:50.480 So, in a general way, these authors show that in the period considered, delinquent action has become more rewarding, less difficult and less risky. 343 00:34:50.480 --> 00:35:04.480 So the initial puzzle, an explosion of delinquency in a quite favorable economic situation, has been solved by adopting a strictly praxeological approach. 344 00:35:04.480 --> 00:35:11.480 The authors did not care at all about the motivational or cultural aspects of delinquency. 345 00:35:11.480 --> 00:35:23.480 Instead, they analyzed delinquent acts or means toward ends and discovered that these acts could henceforth reach more valuable ends at lower costs. 346 00:35:23.480 --> 00:35:35.480 In the Misesian language, we can say that the psychic profit of delinquent acts tended to rise relative to other kinds of acts and that, therefore, delinquent acts were more often carried out. 347 00:35:35.480 --> 00:35:40.480 Culturalism, however, has not said its last word. 348 00:35:40.480 --> 00:35:44.420 Let's take a look at the following figure. 349 00:35:44.420 --> 00:35:50.860 Trends in Murder and Robbery, United States, 1972-2006. 350 00:35:50.860 --> 00:35:55.980 A surprising phenomenon occurs in the 1990s. 351 00:35:55.980 --> 00:36:03.380 During this decade, the delinquency rate in the United States has been divided by two. 352 00:36:03.380 --> 00:36:06.640 This is a very substantial drop. 353 00:36:06.640 --> 00:36:11.640 Now, this evolution is quite difficult to explain. 354 00:36:11.640 --> 00:36:19.120 The most obvious cause would be the huge increase in the number of people behind bars. 355 00:36:19.120 --> 00:36:24.240 According to the statistical calculations of some authors, this policy has had a quite 356 00:36:24.240 --> 00:36:31.160 strong negative effect on criminality, but other authors find weak correlations. 357 00:36:31.160 --> 00:36:38.840 So there's no consensus between statisticians on this topic. 358 00:36:38.840 --> 00:36:46.480 And furthermore, in Canada, a similar strong decline in delinquency has occurred, which 359 00:36:46.480 --> 00:36:53.060 cannot be explained by an increase in the incarceration rate, since no such increase 360 00:36:53.060 --> 00:36:55.520 has taken place there. 361 00:36:55.520 --> 00:37:01.080 And among the other explanations, none is really convincing. 362 00:37:01.080 --> 00:37:07.560 For instance, the strong economy of the 90s, the changing demographics with a lower proportion 363 00:37:07.560 --> 00:37:13.720 of teenagers and young adults, the increase in the number of the police, the improvements 364 00:37:13.720 --> 00:37:18.120 in police organization and practice, etc. 365 00:37:18.120 --> 00:37:23.880 Even when all the aforementioned causes are taken together, they do not seem to deliver 366 00:37:23.880 --> 00:37:31.480 are a satisfactory explanation of such a significant and unexpected phenomenon. 367 00:37:31.480 --> 00:37:36.480 So, some criminologists fall back on a culturalist explanation. 368 00:37:36.480 --> 00:37:44.680 Mark Wimet, for instance, a Canadian criminologist, thinks that the decrease in criminality in the 1990s 369 00:37:44.680 --> 00:37:50.480 could be an effect of, I quote, the new ethos of moderation, unquote, 370 00:37:50.480 --> 00:38:00.480 that characterizes the US and Canada since the 1980s, a new ethos of moderation that's observable in the reduction of overall drinking and smoking. 371 00:38:00.480 --> 00:38:06.480 The drop in delinquency could thus be explained by an important change in collective values. 372 00:38:06.480 --> 00:38:16.480 And the famous American criminologist James Q. Wilson also considers that the usual factors are not sufficient to explain the phenomenon. 373 00:38:16.480 --> 00:38:21.480 And he concludes a recent paper in the Wall Street Journal by saying that, I quote, 374 00:38:21.480 --> 00:38:28.480 crime in the United States is falling because of a big improvement in the culture, end quote. 375 00:38:28.480 --> 00:38:39.480 Well, it's true, it's true that major surveys in moral values conducted worldwide tend to show that culture is slowly but surely improving. 376 00:38:39.480 --> 00:38:43.480 But this culturalist explanation is hardly satisfactory. 377 00:38:43.480 --> 00:38:53.480 The connection between the two phenomena, criminal behaviour on the one hand and moral surrounding on the other, is never clear in the culturalist approach. 378 00:38:53.480 --> 00:39:00.480 And this is the main reason why this approach is unsatisfactory and inferior to the praxeological approach. 379 00:39:00.480 --> 00:39:12.480 Let's now turn more briefly to the second main element in the Misesian conception of social science, namely the a prioristic character of praxeology. 380 00:39:12.480 --> 00:39:17.480 This issue is controversial, not here, but outside. 381 00:39:17.480 --> 00:39:27.480 It's not an exaggeration to say that almost all social scientists today reject a priori, almost all of them. 382 00:39:27.480 --> 00:39:36.480 They are positivists in the sense that they believe that in social science a theory can be corroborated or falsified by empirical data. 383 00:39:36.480 --> 00:39:46.480 And they think quite simply that social science is an empirical science in the exact same way the natural sciences such as physics, chemistry and so on. 384 00:39:46.480 --> 00:39:52.480 This positivistic viewpoint is of course totally rejected by von Mises. 385 00:39:52.480 --> 00:40:03.480 According to him, the theories of human action are logically deduced from the postulate of action combined with specific initial conditions. 386 00:40:03.480 --> 00:40:11.040 The postulate of action states that human action consciously uses means in order to 387 00:40:11.040 --> 00:40:18.400 reach chosen ends. This postulate is a priori true. It would make no sense to test it against 388 00:40:18.400 --> 00:40:24.280 experience in order to check its validity. So the whole edifice of theoretical social 389 00:40:24.280 --> 00:40:29.920 science has an a prioristic character too, since it is logically deduced from this postulate 390 00:40:29.920 --> 00:40:30.920 of Action. 391 00:40:30.920 --> 00:40:37.580 I will now show that the development of the sociology of delinquency properly understood 392 00:40:37.580 --> 00:40:41.680 exemplifies the Misesian a priorism. 393 00:40:41.680 --> 00:40:45.640 One of the main episodes in the sociology of delinquency in the 20th century was the 394 00:40:45.640 --> 00:40:51.960 critic and demise of the culturalist theory, as I have explained above. 395 00:40:51.960 --> 00:40:59.000 As we have seen, this theory has been convincingly criticized by showing, with the help of empirical 396 00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:06.200 Investigations, that criminals do not have a system of values opposed to that of conventional 397 00:41:06.200 --> 00:41:08.360 surrounding society. 398 00:41:08.360 --> 00:41:17.080 So it seems that we have here an example of an empirical refutation of a theory of social 399 00:41:17.080 --> 00:41:24.200 science, namely the culturalist theory of criminality is empirically refuted by the 400 00:41:24.200 --> 00:41:27.360 data, by the empirical data. 401 00:41:27.360 --> 00:41:32.640 But according to von Mises in social science, theories can be neither confirmed nor refuted 402 00:41:32.640 --> 00:41:34.160 by empirical investigation. 403 00:41:34.160 --> 00:41:41.420 So does this episode, very important episode in the history of sociology, contradict the 404 00:41:41.420 --> 00:41:48.220 Misesian a prioristic conception and the answer is a resounding no. 405 00:41:48.220 --> 00:41:55.440 In this case study, the empirical investigation shows that criminals do not have a system 406 00:41:55.440 --> 00:41:59.240 A system of values that extols criminality as such. 407 00:41:59.240 --> 00:42:05.280 But the question, do they have an antisocial value system or do they not? 408 00:42:05.280 --> 00:42:12.600 This question is purely empirical, it's devoid of any theoretical content whatsoever. 409 00:42:12.600 --> 00:42:18.280 It is a historical question whose answer is to be found in an examination of historical 410 00:42:18.280 --> 00:42:20.000 evidence. 411 00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:25.140 And this is just what sociologists such as Matzah and Hirschi have done. 412 00:42:25.140 --> 00:42:31.280 They have analyzed some relevant historical material collected with the methods of observation, 413 00:42:31.280 --> 00:42:38.840 interview, surveys, etc. and they have concluded from these historical sources that so far 414 00:42:38.840 --> 00:42:46.320 they could tell, criminals do not have a value system opposed to the conventional one. 415 00:42:46.320 --> 00:42:52.480 Their statement is an empirical generalization from the little number of cases that they 416 00:42:52.480 --> 00:42:56.560 they have studied to criminals in general. 417 00:42:56.560 --> 00:42:58.760 They resort to an inductive inference 418 00:42:58.760 --> 00:43:02.000 in order to reach an empirical generalization, 419 00:43:02.000 --> 00:43:03.440 an empirical generalization, 420 00:43:03.440 --> 00:43:07.520 but this kind of generalization is not, 421 00:43:07.520 --> 00:43:10.920 not at all a universal law. 422 00:43:10.920 --> 00:43:14.420 It clearly belongs to the branch of history, 423 00:43:14.420 --> 00:43:16.320 not of praxeology. 424 00:43:16.320 --> 00:43:19.560 In our society, we have good reasons to think 425 00:43:19.560 --> 00:43:27.560 is that most delinquents, if not all of them, share the common system of moral values. 426 00:43:27.560 --> 00:43:32.560 They are not deeply committed to it, obviously, but they share it nonetheless. 427 00:43:32.560 --> 00:43:40.560 And this is a historical statement that could be proved wrong in another society or at another period. 428 00:43:40.560 --> 00:43:47.560 So the refutation of the culturalist theory is not at all the refutation of a praxeological law. 429 00:43:47.560 --> 00:44:02.560 It is the rejection of a historical premise of the Culturalist approach and Misesian a priorism is in no way contradicted, in fact it's not even challenged by this example. 430 00:44:02.560 --> 00:44:11.560 The Routine Activity Theory offers another example that shows the relevance of epistemological a priorism in the social sciences. 431 00:44:11.560 --> 00:44:16.880 This theory, as we have seen, explains the great surge in delinquency in the 1960s and 432 00:44:16.880 --> 00:44:22.160 70s by a deep change in the routine activities of American households, and especially the 433 00:44:22.160 --> 00:44:30.360 dispersion of these activities away from home. Stated in a positivist vocabulary, this theory 434 00:44:30.360 --> 00:44:37.640 is a hypothesis according to which delinquency, first variable, is positively related to the 435 00:44:37.640 --> 00:44:42.160 The dispersion of activities outside of home, second variable. 436 00:44:42.160 --> 00:44:48.480 In order to test this hypothesis, the authors calculate an empirical indicator of dispersion 437 00:44:48.480 --> 00:44:54.000 and they find that there is indeed a positive and statistically significant correlation 438 00:44:54.000 --> 00:45:01.240 between the level of delinquency and the intensity of dispersion outside of home, even when economic 439 00:45:01.240 --> 00:45:04.680 and demographic changes are controlled. 440 00:45:04.680 --> 00:45:11.640 So the scientific enterprise of these criminologists can quite easily be expressed in a positivist 441 00:45:11.640 --> 00:45:13.260 framework. 442 00:45:13.260 --> 00:45:20.000 They formulate a hypothesis and then test it against empirical evidence. 443 00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.260 But this interpretation, strictly speaking, is incorrect. 444 00:45:24.260 --> 00:45:33.360 In fact, the authors expound a praxeological theory and their empirical study neither corroborates 445 00:45:33.360 --> 00:45:40.880 nor refutes this theory. Here is, I think, the praxeological core of the explanation 446 00:45:40.880 --> 00:45:47.180 provided by Cohen and Felsen. When an action, for instance a delinquent action, becomes 447 00:45:47.180 --> 00:45:54.520 more rewarding, less risky and less difficult, then it will tend to be more widespread, everything 448 00:45:54.520 --> 00:46:01.400 else equal. Can this statement be empirically tested? No, it's a pure logic of action 449 00:46:01.400 --> 00:46:06.840 related to psychic profit, and it should be noticed that the authors never even attempt 450 00:46:06.840 --> 00:46:13.340 to test this core statement. But then, what's the meaning of their empirical study? Because 451 00:46:13.340 --> 00:46:19.920 in their paper there is a very large empirical part. Is this empirical investigation useless 452 00:46:19.920 --> 00:46:26.860 and irrelevant? No. It's in fact very useful, but must be correctly interpreted. It's not 453 00:46:26.860 --> 00:46:39.860 This is not an empirical test of the theory, rather the empirical study is intended to check the conditions necessary for the application of the theory. 454 00:46:39.860 --> 00:46:46.860 Are these conditions indeed present in the historical reality of a given period? 455 00:46:46.860 --> 00:46:55.860 Delinquent acts will be more numerous if they become more rewarding, less risky and less difficult, everything else equal. 456 00:46:55.860 --> 00:47:02.860 This is the praxeological reasoning true with a prioristic certainty. 457 00:47:02.860 --> 00:47:09.700 Now in the period under study, do these acts indeed become more rewarding, less risky and 458 00:47:09.700 --> 00:47:10.700 less difficult? 459 00:47:10.700 --> 00:47:16.500 This is the question that the empirical or historical investigation has to answer. 460 00:47:16.500 --> 00:47:22.460 At first sight, it may seem as if the authors are testing their theory against the fact, 461 00:47:22.460 --> 00:47:26.460 is demonstrating that Misesian a priori is erroneous, but they are not. 462 00:47:26.460 --> 00:47:34.460 Their core theory is a priori true, and they test its applicability to a specific historical period. 463 00:47:34.460 --> 00:47:43.460 Misesian a priori is not contradicted, it's in fact exemplified by this very important case study in sociology. 464 00:47:43.460 --> 00:47:50.460 This example of the routine activity theory and the previous one of the culturalist approach 465 00:47:50.460 --> 00:47:58.460 approach, both show that if words are not used carefully, they can mislead us into adopting 466 00:47:58.460 --> 00:48:01.580 the positivist viewpoint. 467 00:48:01.580 --> 00:48:07.820 When we say the culturalist theory has been refuted by an empirical investigation, we 468 00:48:07.820 --> 00:48:11.380 use the word theory in a questionable sense. 469 00:48:11.380 --> 00:48:17.740 We should say more rigorously that an empirical premise of the culturalist paradigm has been 470 00:48:17.740 --> 00:48:20.020 invalidated. 471 00:48:20.020 --> 00:48:25.740 When we say that the routine activity has been tested, routine activity theory has been tested 472 00:48:25.740 --> 00:48:32.060 against the empirical evidence, we should say that the conditions of applicability of 473 00:48:32.060 --> 00:48:39.120 the routine activity theory have been checked for a specific historical period. 474 00:48:39.120 --> 00:48:47.040 The scientific vocabulary is full of positivist traps that can only be avoided if we stick 475 00:48:47.040 --> 00:48:51.040 take to the very strict demarcation specified by von Mises 476 00:48:51.040 --> 00:48:56.040 between history on the one hand and praxeology on the other. 477 00:48:56.040 --> 00:48:58.040 Let me now conclude. 478 00:48:58.040 --> 00:49:03.040 In order to pay tribute to Ludwig von Mises, I have tried to show in this lecture 479 00:49:03.040 --> 00:49:08.040 that his thinking on the foundation of social science is fruitful 480 00:49:08.040 --> 00:49:11.040 and relevant well beyond the realm of economics. 481 00:49:11.040 --> 00:49:14.040 I have taken the example of the sociology of delinquency, 482 00:49:14.040 --> 00:49:20.200 There is no doubt that all the branches of sociology could be considered as well. 483 00:49:20.200 --> 00:49:26.840 His conception of action and his prioristic epistemology are both essential in order to 484 00:49:26.840 --> 00:49:31.600 understand the development of the sociology of delinquency. 485 00:49:31.600 --> 00:49:38.360 And his praxeological framework in turn is nicely exemplified by some of the most important 486 00:49:38.360 --> 00:49:44.760 and theoretical developments in this field since the 1950s, such as social control theory, 487 00:49:44.760 --> 00:49:48.600 low self-control theory and routine activity theory. 488 00:49:48.600 --> 00:49:51.360 It's now time for me to thank you very much for your attention. 489 00:49:52.360 --> 00:50:07.520 And they did a study of the beginning of abortion in this country. 490 00:50:07.520 --> 00:50:13.000 I presume they started having abortions also in Canada about the same time, and they attribute 491 00:50:13.000 --> 00:50:20.640 this big decline in delinquency to about 15 to 20 years after we started having a lot 492 00:50:20.640 --> 00:50:28.840 of abortions, and so we eliminated the unwanted children. 493 00:50:28.840 --> 00:50:32.160 And what this illustrates to me, I don't know if I believe that or not, but it's a very 494 00:50:32.160 --> 00:50:39.040 Convincing Argument, is that perhaps using a libertarian paradigm of analysis of all 495 00:50:39.040 --> 00:50:46.160 kinds of problems is dysfunctional. We need to broaden the various paradigms we have to 496 00:50:46.160 --> 00:50:54.700 look at our economy and human action. Okay? The other comment is, as a physician, I see 497 00:50:54.700 --> 00:51:01.440 people who can pass a lie detector test. I once had a patient whose job was doing lie 498 00:51:01.440 --> 00:51:11.440 And they're called psychopaths. They have no human empathy. You can teach them all the rules you want in the world and they never internalize it. 499 00:51:11.440 --> 00:51:18.440 And they kind of trump Mises' idea of human action because they're not really like humans like the rest of us. 500 00:51:18.440 --> 00:51:44.440 Yes, about free economics. This is the idea that the decline in the delinquency rate in the 1990s is due to the fact that the people who would have committed these acts have not committed them because they do not exist, because they have been aborted following the legalization. 501 00:51:44.440 --> 00:51:58.440 As far as I know, the statistical studies show that there is a correlation. 502 00:51:58.440 --> 00:52:01.440 Yes, it is significant, but it's quite small. 503 00:52:01.440 --> 00:52:10.440 And I consider this kind of explanation as, well, honestly, I don't think it's very solid. 504 00:52:10.440 --> 00:52:15.440 But since there is a statistical result that goes with it, 505 00:52:15.440 --> 00:52:18.440 economists, positivist economists take this very seriously. 506 00:52:18.440 --> 00:52:21.440 But I don't, frankly. 507 00:52:21.440 --> 00:52:26.440 As far as the question of empathy is concerned, 508 00:52:26.440 --> 00:52:30.440 of course there are psychopaths. 509 00:52:30.440 --> 00:52:39.440 But for psychopaths, it's very important that other people respect the rules. 510 00:52:39.440 --> 00:52:49.440 The point was that delinquents have more or less the same moral code as the rest of the population. 511 00:52:49.440 --> 00:52:55.440 And in the case of psychopaths, they have the same moral code. 512 00:52:55.440 --> 00:52:59.440 They strongly defend private property, especially theirs. 513 00:52:59.440 --> 00:53:16.400 So, their case can also be explained by the theory that I have presented in this lecture, 514 00:53:16.400 --> 00:53:17.400 I think. 515 00:53:17.400 --> 00:53:18.400 You disagree? 516 00:53:18.400 --> 00:53:28.200 I was wondering, in the case of the 1957 study that you mentioned, which was supposed 517 00:53:28.200 --> 00:53:37.200 to provide an empirical refutation of the culturalist hypothesis, what relevance do the statements of criminals in court have? 518 00:53:37.200 --> 00:53:45.200 I mean, of course, in court it's very unlikely that they would brag about the greatness of murdering and killing and raping and so on, 519 00:53:45.200 --> 00:53:53.200 but that they would rather appeal to the value judgement of their judges and then try to take somewhat exemptions. 520 00:53:53.200 --> 00:53:55.200 So could you comment on this? 521 00:53:55.200 --> 00:54:04.240 Yes, there has of course been, follows up, other studies showing exactly the same point, 522 00:54:04.240 --> 00:54:12.520 but I have quoted this study of 1957 because it was the first one. 523 00:54:12.520 --> 00:54:23.000 And the arguments, we can say that the offenders believe the arguments that they are expounding. 524 00:54:23.000 --> 00:54:29.560 They do not live in a world where all their ideas, all their principles are hidden and 525 00:54:29.560 --> 00:54:36.160 when they are in front of the court, they use purely instrumental presentation of these 526 00:54:36.160 --> 00:54:37.880 arguments. 527 00:54:37.880 --> 00:54:40.200 They really believe in them. 528 00:54:40.200 --> 00:54:45.840 And this is corroborated, of course, by other studies that have been observed in other settings, 529 00:54:45.840 --> 00:54:50.980 not only in this one, but this one is very important because it was the first one, historically 530 00:54:50.980 --> 00:55:19.980 Yes, with regard to the decline in crime in the 1990s, do you think the improvements in technology could be attributed to some of that decline in the sense that cell phones are ubiquitous and you can call an ambulance or a police officer real quick or you can take a picture of a criminal in the act, things like that? 531 00:55:19.980 --> 00:55:26.580 Well, it's an explanation that I have not found in the literature. 532 00:55:26.580 --> 00:55:32.380 But I remember that in France, there was a sharp decline many decades ago, 533 00:55:32.380 --> 00:55:35.300 a sharp decline in the murder rate, 534 00:55:35.300 --> 00:55:41.780 and people were explaining this by the fact that the ambulances were coming much faster, 535 00:55:41.780 --> 00:55:46.940 but I don't know, and so the people who would have died, in fact, 536 00:55:46.940 --> 00:55:50.940 were taken to the hospitals and saved and so on. 537 00:55:52.940 --> 00:55:55.940 That's possible, but I think if it's an explanation, 538 00:55:55.940 --> 00:56:02.940 and it probably is, its impact is very small, in my opinion. 539 00:56:02.940 --> 00:56:06.940 And in the literature, I have never seen it quoted. 540 00:56:06.940 --> 00:56:10.940 Returning to your very interesting discussion of time preference, 541 00:56:10.940 --> 00:56:13.940 could you comment on what you've seen in the literature 542 00:56:13.940 --> 00:56:22.340 on differences in time preference rates, not within an individual's lifetime, but across 543 00:56:22.340 --> 00:56:28.020 individuals, across cultures, across groups, and maybe within groups over time. 544 00:56:28.020 --> 00:56:34.480 For example, people have often suggested that social policies, the welfare state or so-called 545 00:56:34.480 --> 00:56:41.460 social insurance programs, maybe even monetary expansion and price inflation, might result 546 00:56:41.460 --> 00:56:47.460 is involved in an increase in average rates of time preference which might explain some of the behavior at hand. 547 00:56:47.460 --> 00:56:50.460 Has this been discussed in the recent literature? 548 00:56:50.460 --> 00:56:58.460 Well, the main idea is that of course the rates of time preference are very different across individuals in a given society. 549 00:56:58.460 --> 00:57:02.460 So we have very high time preference on one side and very low on the other. 550 00:57:02.460 --> 00:57:08.460 And of course the delinquents are on the side of the very high time preference. 551 00:57:08.460 --> 00:57:13.900 But I have not read, amongst criminologists, 552 00:57:13.900 --> 00:57:20.580 I have never read the idea that 553 00:57:20.580 --> 00:57:26.780 this rate of time preference could result from social policy. 554 00:57:26.780 --> 00:57:31.180 But this is the idea that we find in Hoppe's works, for instance, 555 00:57:31.180 --> 00:57:35.540 and maybe Bansfield, an author that he often quotes, 556 00:57:35.540 --> 00:57:44.140 But who is not often quoted in the Sociology of Delinquency literature? 557 00:57:44.140 --> 00:57:45.660 I haven't found him. 558 00:57:45.660 --> 00:57:51.580 So the sociologists of delinquency do not make this relation, 559 00:57:51.580 --> 00:57:56.180 this relationship between delinquency and the welfare state. 560 00:57:56.180 --> 00:58:02.500 And this may be because most of delinquents are very young people, teenagers. 561 00:58:02.500 --> 00:58:09.100 So, how are they affected, and are they affected at all by the schooling system, or things like that? 562 00:58:09.100 --> 00:58:15.700 This is the question that is not found in this kind of literature. 563 00:58:15.700 --> 00:58:24.700 They do not take the political philosophy step, but they should have a higher viewpoint on these questions. 564 00:58:24.700 --> 00:58:26.700 It would be very interesting. 565 00:58:26.700 --> 00:58:28.700 Other questions? 566 00:58:28.700 --> 00:58:36.700 I don't think I'm a positivist, but I do have some questions, and they relate to kind of what this gentleman said. 567 00:58:36.700 --> 00:58:44.700 You know, if you look at the curve of crimes committed by age groups, something happens to young people. 568 00:58:44.700 --> 00:58:50.700 And it seems to me that you explain it as a time preference change, but that seems to be an effect rather than a cause. 569 00:58:50.700 --> 00:58:57.700 And perhaps we could explain the cause as physiological changes, as young people become more mature, their brains develop better, 570 00:58:57.700 --> 00:59:01.700 and they have a better understanding of how to control their behavior. 571 00:59:01.700 --> 00:59:05.700 And so if you accept that, maybe you don't, I'm asking the question, 572 00:59:05.700 --> 00:59:11.700 as a causative effect of crimes by young people, 573 00:59:11.700 --> 00:59:18.700 why couldn't other physiological issues come into effect to explain crime? 574 00:59:18.700 --> 00:59:23.700 And the thing that struck me is that we have a huge prison population here 575 00:59:23.700 --> 00:59:26.700 that are basically hardwired sociopaths 576 00:59:26.700 --> 00:59:34.220 and they're hardwired sociopaths because their mothers mainly have been drug addicts, alcoholics, 577 00:59:34.220 --> 00:59:37.980 a very high percentage. I don't know what it is. Maybe you would not. I hope you would 578 00:59:39.660 --> 00:59:46.700 give us some elucidation of that subject. But, you know, they don't exercise normal behavior. 579 00:59:46.700 --> 00:59:51.660 I mean, they are hardwired sociopaths. They have no empathy. They don't think like the rest of us. 580 00:59:51.660 --> 00:59:54.860 They don't behave like the rest of us. What is your opinion of that? 581 00:59:54.860 --> 01:00:07.180 Well, these cases, I think, are of a psychiatric nature, and this is maybe why I am not really 582 01:00:07.180 --> 01:00:09.900 able to answer to you. 583 01:00:09.900 --> 01:00:15.740 These cases are of, I would say, no interest, almost no interest to sociologists, but rather 584 01:00:15.740 --> 01:00:18.820 to psychiatrists and psychologists. 585 01:00:18.820 --> 01:00:24.220 And I think that there are very, very few people of this kind, very, very lucky, you 586 01:00:24.220 --> 01:00:28.220 Do you think there are many? No, there are very, very few. 587 01:00:28.220 --> 01:00:38.220 Yes, I'm inclined to agree with the previous speaker in this respect that you say that the members of the delinquent group effectively share the same values. 588 01:00:38.220 --> 01:00:44.220 They do, but only in respect to themselves. Right? In other words, they have a conception of private property, they offend it. 589 01:00:44.220 --> 01:00:48.220 Yes, but it's my private property, not other people's private property, right? 590 01:00:48.220 --> 01:00:52.380 So one way to perhaps explain this, which doesn't run necessarily counter to what you say but 591 01:00:52.380 --> 01:00:57.100 would supplement it, is that if you take the sort of Confucian notion of moral development, 592 01:00:57.100 --> 01:01:02.160 which is that you have a natural sphere, which we all have, right, then you have the utilitarian. 593 01:01:02.160 --> 01:01:06.980 And the critical moment, which corresponds roughly in the teenage years and especially 594 01:01:06.980 --> 01:01:12.600 in men, is the movement from the utilitarian to the moral, which involves coming to see 595 01:01:12.600 --> 01:01:15.940 other people exactly as you are yourself. 596 01:01:15.940 --> 01:01:17.580 And that's the critical moment. 597 01:01:17.580 --> 01:01:21.960 Now, most of us manage to reach it at some level and to maintain it more or less intermittently 598 01:01:21.960 --> 01:01:23.040 throughout our lives. 599 01:01:23.040 --> 01:01:26.720 But some people never seem to do it or seem to do it with less success than others. 600 01:01:26.720 --> 01:01:32.820 And it's identified, if you like, so they are morally, effectively immature, right? 601 01:01:32.820 --> 01:01:37.020 So yes, they are utilitarian, they will use other people, they will defend private property 602 01:01:37.020 --> 01:01:42.580 for themselves, they will defend personal integrity for themselves, but not for other 603 01:01:42.580 --> 01:01:43.580 people. 604 01:01:43.580 --> 01:01:50.780 Yes, but they are able to, you know, to expound more general principles. 605 01:01:50.780 --> 01:01:57.900 Of course, they are extremely attached to their own private property, and not to those of others. 606 01:01:57.900 --> 01:02:03.100 But they can express general principles, and on a matter of general principles, 607 01:02:03.100 --> 01:02:09.740 I think that they favor private property. Not as a general principle, not only for themselves, 608 01:02:09.740 --> 01:02:15.260 but also for others but just that they don't care about others so they can steal from them easily 609 01:02:15.260 --> 01:02:23.980 but they will not defend a general principle that runs counter private property as a general system 610 01:02:25.020 --> 01:02:30.380 I don't think they will but they are not political philosophers of course they they do not 611 01:02:31.340 --> 01:02:36.940 they do not think a lot about those questions you know but on a casual in a casual way 612 01:02:36.940 --> 01:02:43.940 They are not revolutionaries. They want to change the system. 613 01:02:43.940 --> 01:02:46.940 No, they are okay with the system, don't you think? 614 01:02:46.940 --> 01:02:48.940 Thank you very much for your remarks and for your questions. 615 01:02:48.940 --> 01:02:50.940 Thank you very much.