According to Sky News
Sussex police have made a link between levels of violent crime and the lunar cycle after studying external factors in people's behaviour
Moderator
According to Sky News
Sussex police have made a link between levels of violent crime and the lunar cycle after studying external factors in people's behaviour
Order of Kilopi
Ok; we all know that the light levels have something to do with it...Originally Posted by Sticks
But; why was that not mentioned?
Ok; I can forgive them for not knowing or not drawing a conclusion.
But; To include that last sentence is unforgivable.
One theory? FROM WHO
Established Member
Thank god the moon isn't full all the time"Research carried out by us has shown a correlation between violent incidents and full moons," she said.
Established Member
100% of crime occurs within 2 weeks of a Full Moon.
Think about it.
Senior Member
A mundane explanation would not make for an interesting article.
Perhaps that article was written by Sky news' resident astrologer.To include that last sentence is unforgivable.
Order of Kilopi
By the same "reasoning", crimes should be greater at high tide.
STARGAZING: All I see are the lights of a billion places I'll never go. --Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary
Order of Kilopi
"Full moons and paydays were identified as particular times when aggressive behaviour rose . . . ."
Getting paid leads to violent behavior, too, right? That's just as scientific an explanation as the one the article proposes.
Nope, only 95.6% of crime happens in the 28 days surrounding a full moon (assuming a uniform crime rate).
Order of Kilopi
I can believe the "payday" one, indirectly, though. Payday is for some the day to buy a few cases of beer, get drunk, and get into trouble.
Now, rather than say that full moons cause crime, I would say, no, criminals cause crime!
Todd
Established Member
Analyses that are more complete show that the lunar correlations are simply loony!
http://skepdic.com/fullmoon.html
Established Member
The article says they only looked at 1 year's worth of crime data. More would have been better.
There probably was some truth to higher crime during full moons years ago before the widespread use of street lighting. Full Moons were the nights you could be outside and see where you were walking. And what might people be doing late night? Drinking of course. More drunk people on the streets = higher crime.
Order of Kilopi
Actually, I'd rather blame it on the bossa nova!
Established Member
From the article:
This makes sense now. Obviously, when more of the moon can be seen, the moon exerts more gravity compared to when less of the moon can be seen. This resolves the mystery of 'dark matter.' In order to eliminate this inconvenience to astrophysics I hereby propose we illuminate the rest of the universe to show the dark matter. This will increase gravity overall, and prevent the universal expansion from accelerating. [kidding]One theory is that as human beings are mostly made of water, the lunar gravity pulls them in the same way as it does the sea.
Established Member
Ask any police officer or EMT/Paramedic and the superstitious ones as well as the logical ones will say Yes... the Full moon brings higher crime and injury.
I was a police officer, but one of the logical ones, and here is what I've found.
(This is so simple it's almost stupid)
As the moon waxes and wanes, the rates of almost everything go up.
The peak would be the day before, the day of, and the day after a full moon, on clear nights.
On overcast full moon nights, you don't see it as heavily.
It is all light related.
When people can see at night, they are more likely to be active, and to do things they wouldn't normally do if they had a hard time seeing.
Sex, Crime, and Vandalism along with tons of other things happen when people can "see" in what they think is dark. And for the most part they are right.
If you are in your house even on the brightest full moon night, you have your lights on inside, which makes the contrast to the outside almost black even though the guy sneaking around your house can see perfectly well.
As police officers, we are taught when entering an area (like a house) that is lit, from a dark area (or vice/versa), to close ONE eye.
By closing one eye, and since both pupils act in unison, you make your eyes spend only one half the time to adjust to the new lighting situation.
Try this on a bright sunny day.
Cover one eye completely for about 5 minutes, and if you can blink one eye at a time, you will notice an extreme contrast change when switching to the eye that was covered. Go back and forth. The eye that was light-deprived will see grass as greener.
The full moon does have an effect, but it has nothing to do with gravity.
With ONE exception.....
Because we are made of water, women's menstrual cycles can indeed be affected by the moon. That is why they are called cycles.
But even then... the moon's gravity pulls on you less than the couch you are sitting on.
Order of Kilopi
Actually, I'd rather blame it on the bossa nova!
(Now was it the moon?)
No, no, the bossa nova
(Or the stars above?)
No, no, the bossa nova
(Now was it the tune?)
Yeah, yeah, the bossa nova
(The dance of love)
Perhaps music is the answer to their problem afterall.
Order of Kilopi
???
I thought they were called cycles because they, like, happened in cycles?
STARGAZING: All I see are the lights of a billion places I'll never go. --Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary
Established Member
On a related note, are you aware of the shocking statistic that 40% of all sick days occur on Mondays and Fridays????????
(extra question marks to make the statement seem more important)
(also, thanks to the comic Dilbert for that little gem)
Pete
Established Member
Pointy-Haired Boss: What kind of an idiot do they take me for???
Dilbert: Well, not an Idiot Savant. They can do math.
Established Member
I used to have fun with this one.
Driving down a popular country road with a car full of people at night. One mile straight, 90 degree corner, one mile straight.
I would close one eye for a while and just before I hit the corner I would open it.
At the same time I turned off the headlights.
I stayed on the road perfectly, even through the screaming.
Bad Post-Doc
Exactly right. The average menstrual cycle and the lunar month do not correspond. It is, however, true that women who spend a lot of time together eventually tend to synchronize cycles. (I could give you all the lecture they give the girls in fourth grade, but I like to hope you don't need it!)???
I thought they were called cycles because they, like, happened in cycles?
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Gillian
"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"
"You can't erase icing."
"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"
Established Member
I remember doing a project in data mining once upon a time. We replicated results from some Australian crime agency that said that Wednesdays were far and away the biggest days for crime. There was no one factor that made it so, just lots of very little things (welfare cheque day contributed 0.001%, I think) that added up. It wasn't a statistical anomaly: no matter which subset of the data we chose, we ended up with roughly the same result. So it could be possible.
Anecdotally, when I worked at the public library, full moon nights were the nights when the weirdest stuff happened. One night, a flasher ran in and did his stuff. Another time, we found a huge stack of used needles. Another time, I got a date. All sorts of bizarre things.
That said, I doubt there's really anything to it. Events on full moon nights are just plain more memorable, because you have something to link those events.
Order of Kilopi
Plus, of course, since everybody's heard of the Full Moon myths, it gives them an excuse to act more uninhibited when there is one. Power of suggestion.
STARGAZING: All I see are the lights of a billion places I'll never go. --Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary
Order of Kilopi
As an incidental question, is there a connection between the menstrual cycle and the month? I mean, evolutionarily? Is it just a coincidence that it happens to be about the same period, or it there a reason? I've never looked into it, never having had that particular problem. What about other animals?
As above, so below
Moderator
You are in danger of perpetuating another geek related myth, re lack of a social life. That's my job
Order of Kilopi
I would guess that it's coincidence and more an issue of timing, by which I mean how long it takes for the steps of the cycle to happen (the egg leave the ovary, travel to the uterus, get a chance to develop before the body starts to expel it, etc.). My biology is a bit rusty, especially in this area, but it seems reasonable. [A quick glance at wikipedia suggests that I'm on the right track. I was hoping to find that other animals' menstrual cycles had different lengths, but that doesn't appear to be the case.]
The other thing is that the numbers are close, but they don't quite match. This is just like the "once-per-month paycheck" argument I want to make, saying that full moons and paychecks roughly coincide. They don't exactly coincide, and the cycles drift, ruining any possible correlation.
Order of Kilopi
I hope I'm not saying something silly, but I do believe that they do coincide. I'm almost certain that the month is based on the moon, but there has always been a problem with lunar and annual cycles. If the moon was well behaved and went around the sun exactly 12 times in a year, we'd have it made, but unfortunately it doesn't behave. So artificially stretching the month to 30 or 31 days allows you to fit 12 months nicely into a year. So yes, the months are no longer following the lunar cycles at all, but I do believe that originally, they did just that. So the payday is correlated with the lunar cycles, just not very well. Or that's the way I've always understood the history of the calendar.
As above, so below
Banned
Pushing ones tongue into check.... What Utter rubbish is this?
Apart from the obvious connection with pay day excessive drinking and crime. The likely hood of criminal activity in the light of the moon is obvious enough.
I would like to remind you.. ( No. most of you now this.) I just want those thick headed individuals to understand that the moon crosses your sky every day. Its just not always at opposition and is there for not always seen. Did that need to be said? No. I hope not.
Honored Member
I'm reminded of a Southern police department head back in the early 1960s who said that the force had to be on the ready around the full Moon since that's when the "nigra" tended to be be most active.
About the only thing the Moon has really contributed to psychologically is lunacy.
Moderator
Bad Post-Doc
Most other animals don't have true menstrual cycles. They may go into heat--though how often varies a great deal based on species, of course!--but anyone who's had a female, unfixed cat can attest that human females have to deal with some issues that feline females don't.
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Gillian
"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"
"You can't erase icing."
"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"
Established Member
Felines ovulate during the act. The male feline has a barb on his penis that stimulates ovulation. Being in "heat" for a female cat is something else altogether.
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