How To Get A Bank Teller Job In Any Nigerian Bank

Bank tellers are the front-line transaction officers that attend to customers’ day to day transactions in the banking halls. Their duties includes paying cash, receiving cash deposits, sometimes they also serve as customer service representative in most banks.

They are always smart and cheerful in attending to customers’ requests and that is why most banks require smart and young looking employees not more than 26years of age.

NIMC Moves To Integrate BVN Data

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has concluded plans to integrate the Bank Verification Number (BVN) in the national identity database.

The Director-General of NIMC, Mr Chris Onyemenam, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.

Onyenam, whose tenure expires today, said that the planned integration was borne out of the need to obey a presidential directive to harmonise various databases in the country.

New Case Of Ebola reported In Liberia – WHO

The World Health Organisation on Friday announced that a new case of the deadly Ebola virus has surfaced in Liberia, which was declared Ebola free in September. There is one confirmed case,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told AFP, without providing further details. The west African nation, where thousands died at the height of the epidemic last year, was first declared Ebola free in May, only to see the fever resurface six weeks later, and again in September. Since the beginning of the outbreak, Liberia has registered more than 10,600 cases and 4,808 deaths, according to the latest situation report from the UN health agency published earlier this week. According to the latest toll given by WHO, the epidemic that started in December 2013 has left more than 11,300 dead, mainly in the west African states of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, out of almost 29,000 cases. Friday’s news comes just days after the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced the last known Ebola case in Guinea, a three-week old girl, had recovered. Guinea still must wait 42 days with no cases before being declared Ebola free. Sierra Leone was declared to have beaten the virus earlier this month

105 Missing Soldiers: Nigerians Are Being Conned, Buratai Is Not Being Truthful

The Shadow Cabinet Of Nigeria in a state of utter shock and dismay hereby decry the coordinated‎ bombings in Yola and Kano in the past 72 hours resulting in 49 deaths and many injured, worse still, the alleged case of 105 missing soldiers as reported in the media.
‎
We are aware of the recent press statement by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, that no army officer is missing.‎

‎We beg to differ on this.
We have reached out to a few reliable sources within the ranks of the Nigerian military and we can confirm that things are very bad, the Nigerian press seem to be covering up a lot of things.

The Jagaban: Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigeria's Most Powerful Politician - Onyebuchi Ememanka

In 1999, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu was elected Governor of Lagos State. His then party, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) produced all the governors of the South West. By 2003, Tinubu was the onl y governor left in the AD. He was under pressure to decamp but he stayed. He built the party and it became stronger. For the eight years that he ruled Lagos, he hired several guys to work with him. I think he carefully picked them. Apart from using them to work in his government, he also groomed them for the future. Eight years down the line, see where those Tinubu guys are today -

#HappyBirthdayGEJ: Top 58 Quotable Quotes Of GEJ As He Turns 58

The previous President, Goodluck Jonathan will obviously be associated with his famous quotes amid his time as the country’s first citizen. Notwithstanding a few weaknesses in his administration like in some other organization, previous President Goodluck Jonathan is adored by numerous who have ascended to commend him as he turns a year older today, Friday, November 20.

See top 58 Quotable Quotes Of former president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

In festivity of the previous President’s day, Vanguard has caught 58 quotable quotes of his.

Quote 1

The stronger the boat of (democracy), the more it is able to meet the challenges of its voyage and deliver on its promise to citizens.

Quote 2

The air of freedom we breathe today is the result of the sacrifices of thousands of pro-democracy activists, human rights campaigners and others who organised as civil society.

Quote 3

My political ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian.

Quote 4

No minister will be allowed to go on a mission of endless search for solutions.

Quote 5

In the comfort of our offices, let us not forget that majority of our people live below the poverty line.

Quote 6

Terrorism has no conscience and spares no one.

Quote 7

Any society or country that closes the vital valves of its democratic space cannot develop at a reasonable pace

Quote 8

Where there is no opportunity for one man one vote, there will be no accountability and no responsibility.

Quote 9

Democracy is a journey that every nation mindful of advancing the liberty of its citizens must undertake.

Quote 10

Nobody’s political ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian.


Quote 11

Our votes must count! One man, one vote! One woman, one vote! One youth, one vote!

Quote 12

Nobody should rig for me. I am assuring Nigerians that though I am contesting, nobody must manipulate votes in my favour. Our votes must count.

Quote 13

I congratulate the candidates of the other political parties. I regard them not as opponents but as partners.

Quote 14

In presenting myself for service, I make no pretense that I have a magic wand that will solve all of Nigeria’s problems or that I am the most intelligent Nigerian.

Quote 15

I have come to launch a campaign of ideas, not one of calumny. I have come to preach love, not hate. I have come to break you away from divisive tendencies of the past which have slowed our drive to true nationhood. I have no enemies to fight. You are all my friends and we share a common destiny.

Quote 16

Democracy calls for sacrifice and tolerance an open ear and a strong voice.

Quote 17

For the PDP family, the contest for party offices does not produce winners and losers.

Quote 18

I believe in the politics of give and take.

Quote 19

Separation of power is not separation of government.

Quote 20

We are all Nigerians and I will be a President to all. This is the new dawn we crave


Quote 21

Our unity is firm, our purpose strong, our determination unshakable.

Quote 22

Being a Nigerian is a blessing (and) a great responsibility.

Quote 23

We have a duty to be loyal to our country.

Quote 24

If God did not will it we will not be Nigerians.

Quote 25

Our founding fathers… did not dream of a country where neighbours and friends would exchange bullets in place of handshakes.

Quote 26

I prefer to see the silver lining in the dark cloud rather than the dark cloud in the silver lining.

Quote 27

We may not have overcome our challenges, but neither have our challenges overcome us.

Quote 28

We are not sworn enemies… We are neighbours who sometimes offend each other, but can always sit down to talk over our differences.

Quote 29

Over-dependence on oil has put an unpleasant bracket in our national economic freedom.

Quote 30

Economic diplomacy does not need to be a zero-sum game where the gain of partner automatically translates to the loss of the other.


Quote 31

Peace and security are the barest irreducible conditions for social and economic development.

Quote 32

I am loyal to Nigeria’s economy. I don’t have accounts or property abroad. All my children live and school in Nigeria.

Quote 33

The time of lamentation is over. This is the era of transformation. This is the time for action.

Quote 34

Cynicism and scepticism will not help our journey to greatness. Let us all believe in a new Nigeria.

Quote 35

The goal of achieving positive macroeconomic stability is no end in itself.

Quote 36

I have no intention to inflict pain on Nigerians. To save Nigeria, we must all be prepared to make sacrifices.

Quote 37

While we may not have landed a spaceship on the moon or developed nuclear technology, our inventors and innovators have made globally acknowledged contributions

Quote 38

Transformation in my view simply means taking what you have and making the best of it and in so doing produce results that can bring about a paradigm shift.

Quote 39

I want to assure Nigerians that crude oil is not our ‘Black Gold.’ The real ‘Black Gold’ of Nigeria are her people and they can grow in value from gold to diamond via education.

Quote 40

We must quickly move away from partisan battlegrounds and find the national common ground.


Quote 41

Let me put you on notice: the assignment of offices is not an allocation of privileges.

Quote 42

Nigeria is a nation of resilient people. We will never yield to the forces of darkness. Nigeria will never ever, disintegrate.

Quote 43

The quality of governance is as good as the quality of the civil service.

Quote 44

The best advertisement for good governance is its positive expressions of happiness in the lives of the governed.

Quote 43

In my early days in school, I had no shoes, no school bags. I carried my books in my hands but never despaired; no car to take me to school, but I never despaired. There were days I had only one meal but I never despaired. I walked miles and crossed rivers to school every day, but I never despaired. Didn’t have power, didn’t have generators, studied with lanterns, but I never despaired. In spite of these, I finished secondary school attended the University of Port Harcourt and now hold a doctorate degree.

Quote 44

I was not born rich and in my youth, I never imagined that I would be where I am today, but not once did I ever give up.

Quote 45

As the most populous black nation on earth it seems our manifest destiny is to champion the cause of African emancipation and integration.

Quote 46

African renaissance remains an unfinished business, but the work that remains should not stop us from focusing on new priorities and challenges.

Quote 47

I am happy that the black man has put the shame of dispossession behind him and is moving on.

Quote 48

The dark patches in the Niger Delta will give way to light.

Quote 49

On the football field, nobody cares who scores for Nigeria. You can be a Musa or a Moses; you can be a Christopher or a Mustapha, nobody cares.

Quote 50

We have a duty to stand firm against those who threaten the sovereign integrity of the Nigerian state. Our will is strong, because our faith lies in the indivisibility of Nigeria.


Quote 51

Nigerians are peace-loving people; these sad events perpetrated by those who do not wish our nation well have not changed the essential character of our people.

Quote 52

No matter what it takes, we will win this war against terror.

Quote 53

Africa must declare an end to the era of self-inflicted wars and conflicts.

Quote 54

Africa must turn its begging bowls into baskets of prosperity and opportunity.

Quote 55

It is the supreme task of this generation to give hope to the hopeless strength to the weak and protection to the defenseless.

Quote 56

We must develop a democratic culture in which the will of the people will be treated as sacred and be immune to subversion by anti-democratic elements.

Quote 57

As we strive to advance our democratic development, there will be times when our will shall be tested, our patience provoked and our belief questioned.

Quote 58

The beauty of democracy is that its practice is never final and always has room for improvement no matter how old a democratic society may be. Where we falter we must not fall. When we are weak, we must not surrender.

#GoodluckJonathan

Alleged missing 105 Nigerian soldiers: Army releases statement

The Nigerian Army has released a statement explaining what transpired in Gudumbali, Borno state on Wednesday November 18th where 105 soldiers were said to have gone missing after a gun battle with Boko haram members. The statement which is signed by Tukur Ismail Gusau, the Media Coordinator Operation Lafiya Dole, states that the claim is far from true. The statement after the jump...

Benin Republic invades 16 Nigerian villages, hoists flag of annexation

ILORIN – The neighbouring Benin Republic has invaded sixteen villages in Okuta, the border town in Baruten local government area of Kwara state, thereby causing serious fear and palpable tension in the affected communities. ‎In their shrewd determination to annex the Nigerian villages, Vanguard reliably gathered that authorities of Benin Republic have gone ahead to construct Gerdarmes Office(Police station) in the affected Nigerian communities and also hoist the country flag at the affected Nigeria villages.

Video: Russian warplanes disrupt ISIS oil sales channels; destroy 500 terrorist oil trucks in Syria

Around 500 fuel tanker vehicles transporting illegal oil from Syria to Iraq for processing have been destroyed by Russia’s Air Forces, the General Staff said.

“In recent years, Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and other extremist groups have organized the operations of the so-called ‘pipeline on wheels’ on the territories they control,” Russian General Staff spokesman Colonel General Andrey Kartapolov said.

Hundreds of thousands of tons of fuel have been delivered to Iraq for processing by trucks and the revenue generated from these illegal exports is the one of the terrorists’ main sources of funding, he said.
Watch the video after the Jump.

Syrian Forces In Maheen, East Homs

Last night, the Syrian froces captured the villages of Hawareen and Tal Daher and entered the Maheen Orchards in East Homs. This morning, the pro-government forces pushed to the Maheen town. ISIS is on the verge of defeat inside of Maheen captured by terrorists in early November. We remember, last weekend, the Syrian froces launched a military operation against ISIS to recapture Maheen and the villages to the north of the town. Currently, the Syrian Armed Forces are advancing inside Maheen. Nonetheless, ISIS will try to repel the Syrian forces’ advance. The militants rely on the reinforcements which have reportedly arrived this morning.

Operation TRIANGLE Three more Nigerian nationals arrested by the Nigerian EFCC

Operation TRIANGLE Three more Nigerian nationals arrested by the Nigerian EFCC (Economic and Financial Crime Commission), in close cooperation with Polizia di Stato (Italian National Police)


June 9, 2015, 4.00 am: 750 police officers from the Italian, Spanish, Polish, English, Belgian, Georgian, Turkish and Cameroonian police, with the support of Europol and Interpol, and with the coordination of Eurojust, knocked on the doors of 62 individuals suspected of being members of a criminal organization, mainly from Nigeria and Cameroon, responsible for a huge number of frauds committed against small and medium-sized enterprises across the world.

Bayelsa Guber: APC Cloning Pvcs For Election – Dickson

The campaign organisation of Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, has raised the alarm that the All Progressives Congress (APC), is hell-bent on rigging next month’s governorship election in the state.

Director of Publicity of Dickson’s campaign team, Jonathan Obuebite, said this on Tuesday while briefing newsmen in Yenagoa.
He claimed that the APC was putting “immoral and indecent strategies in place” some of which had been concluded to be executed on the day of the election.

Family Of Diezani Alison-madueke Outraged By Dele Momodu's Visit To Her - Lawyer

Members of the immediate family of embattled former Minister for Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, as well as her legal team are outraged over the recent visit of Nigerian journalist Dele Momodu to the former minister’s London flat.

In an interview with SaharaReporters, Mrs. Alison-Madueke's Nigerian lawyer, Oscar Onwudiwe, asserted that the ex-minister never intended or authorized anything from that meeting to be broadcast to the public.

PDP Releases List Of Key Members Allegedly Marked For Death By APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that some of its key members are currently been targeted and marked for death by the All Progressives Congress (APC).

This was disclosed in a statement by Chief Olisa Metuh, the national publicity secretary of the PDP in a press conference to address the alleged assassination attempt on Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu.

Mastermind of Paris terror attack killed

The man suspected of masterminding last Friday's Paris attacks that killed 129 people, was killed in the police raid north of Paris Wednesday, investigators confirmed. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, was the second person to die in the Saint-Denis raid, the French prosecutor's office reported Thursday. He was identified from skin samples. Abaaoud had previously been linked to a string of thwarted attacks including the plot to kill passengers on a Paris-bound high-speed train in August, a plot that 3 young Americans helped foil. He claimed he successfully moved back and forth from Europe to Syria coordinating terror attacks, and narrowly escaped a January police raid in the Belgian city of Verviers. “Allah blinded their vision and I was able to leave... despite being chased after by so many intelligence agencies," he told the ISIS magazine Dabiq.

Lack of medical supplies hampers treatment of victims of Yola bomb blast

Lack of medical supplies at the Yola specialist hospital as well as other state owned hospitals, is hampering the treatment of victims of the Tuesday Bomb blast in Yola, Adamawa state. Many of the over 80 people who sustained injuries from the attack are yet to receive adequate medical attention due to lack of medical supplies. One of the victims who refused to state her name said “After I paid N1000, they did an x-ray and said there is a metal inside my wound, however, nothing has happened since then”. Another one of them told Premiumtimes "Since they brought me yesterday, I was just given Tetanus injection and two tablets of Paracetamol. You can see blood is still dripping from my wound".

Pres. Buhari, The Jagaban others at the wedding fatiha of Atiku's daughters

Buhari, Saraki, Dogara, Tinubu,Tambuwal, others at the wedding fatiha of Atiku’s daughters. See more photos bellow.

#Buhari, #Dogara, #Saraki, #Tambuwal, #Tinubu

Photos: Bank robbery reported at Agbara !

Toward the beginning of today armed burglars raged a bank in Agbara and engaged with the police in a weapon fight. One person was killed, not certain if its an armed thief or a security watchman. See more exclusive photographs bellow.

#NaijaNews

Buhari Government Witchunting Dasuki – Fani-Kayode

Former Spokesperson for the Goodluck Jonathan presidential campaign and Chieftain of the Peoples Democracy Party, Femi Fani-Kayode has described the call for the arrest of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki by President Muhammadu Buhari as pure witch-hunting by the current government. Fani-Kayode, who is known for his crude attacks on the President Buhari-led government, said it was wrong calling for the arrest of a man it never invited.
He aired his views via his Twitter handle thus: “How can it be right to order the arrest of Sambo Dasuki when he was never invited or questioned by the probe panel? It is a witch-hunt.”

Putin the ‘Only Defender of Christianity’

Syrian President Bashar Assad considers Russia’s Vladimir Putin as the “only defender of Christian civilization one can trust.”


“When I look at the present state of things in the world I realize that Vladimir Putin is the sole defender of Christian civilization one can rely on,” Assad said in an interview with French magazine Valeurs Actuelles.
The Syrian leader also said that he would step down only if asked to by the Syrian people and the Syrian parliament, adding that the issue of his possible resignation had not yet been raised on an international level.

President Muhammadu Buhari reacts to Kano, Yola bomb attacks

President Muhammadu Buhari, has sympathized with the families of the victims of the bomb assault in Kano, on Wednesday night and Yola, on Tuesday. Buhari censured the culprits of the blast at Kano GSM business sector and Yola car park, while calling for expanded vigilance among Nigerians. Speaking on behalf  of the Presidency, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, issued a couple numbered tweets.

#PresidentMuhammaduBuhari

ISIS picked the wrong fight as Russia hits 206 ISIS targets in Syria after confirming bomb downed passenger plane over Sinai

On the day Moscow officially confirmed a terrorist attack as the cause of last month’s downing of a passenger plane in Egypt, the Russian military hit over 200 terrorist targets in Syria in 127 sorties.

The escalated Russian operation involved not only warplanes flying from an airfield near Latakia, but also strategic bombers operating from Russian territory.

On Tuesday, Russian warplanes conducted 127 sorties and hit 206 targets, a source in the Russian defense ministry told RT.

Russian strategic bombers such as Tu-22M3s, Tu-95MCs and Tu-160s were previously used for patrol missions as part of Russia’s nuclear deterrence. Their deployment in a conventional armed conflict marks an evolution in Russian military tactics.

Ngozi Okonjo Iweala mourns victims of Yola bomb blast

The former Finance minister took to her Facebook wall to express her sadness over the bomb incident at Jimeta, Yola, Adamawa state which killed 32 people and left over 80 injured yesterday Nov. 17th.

Check out Top 10 Theories About How Biology Creates A Criminal

Some scientists theorize that criminal science or biology  is distinctive, with the inclination to violate the law encoded in the guilty party’s DNA. To say that somebody is “born bad” is a gross exaggeration, yet researchers have proposed that a few individuals are hereditarily at danger of getting to be wrongdoers. See the list bellow.

10 Some People May Be Unable To Reform

Researchers have been studying the anterior cingulate cortex in the brains of prisoners to predict if and how long it will be until they commit another crime. Before being released on parole or probation, 96 male prisoners were given MRI scans in which their impulsive behavior was tested. They watched a screen and were given less than one second to press a button when an “X” appeared but not when a “K” appeared. “X” appeared the majority of the time, so they had to exhibit self-control to stop themselves from pressing the button when “K” appeared.The result was that criminals often pressed the button when “K” appeared, implying that they were more impulsive than the average person. The part of their brain responsible for controlling impulsive behavior may have been deficient. After three years, the study found that criminals with the least amount of activity in their anterior cingulate cortex were more likely to commit a crime during that time. The level of brain activity also correlated to the amount of time before the criminal became a reoffender. Although the researchers found that the activity in this area of the brain correlated with recidivism, they could not determine why this happened. Impulsiveness could be the reason, but the anterior cingulate cortex could also be calculating how likely the prisoners were to make an error when pressing the button. Scientists cautioned against drawing any conclusions from this type of statistical analysis.

9 Some People Could Be Born Criminals


In the late 1960s, the WHO started a project to closely follow about 1,800 children on Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean. Researchers have been using that data to predict whether a child will grow up to be a criminal.Their research showed that children from Mauritius with slower heart rates and reduced skin responses when annoyed by loud tones or challenging questions tended to have criminal records when they got older. Fifteen-year-olds with this pattern tended to have criminal records by age 29. Three-year-olds who displayed the pattern were usually more aggressive than other children five years later. When sets of twins were tested, identical twins showed more similar traits than nonidentical ones. This suggests that genetics played a stronger role than environmental factors because each set of twins was raised in the same household.According to the theory, criminals are insensitive to fear. A loud noise raises the heart rate and puts the body in a state of alert, which is what the skin sensors pick up. But children who were not alarmed also didn’t react to punishment when they misbehaved. In the same way, they didn’t react to distress in other people. The theory is that the pattern builds as they age, resulting in criminal behavior. However, the researchers caution that environment is a significant factor in whether a child becomes a criminal.

8 A Lot Of Crime Was Caused By Lead

Exposure to lead during pregnancy may cause infants to have reduced head sizes, headaches, lower IQs, and aggressive or dysfunctional behavior. It also reduces the gray matter in the brain responsible for activities like impulse control and thinking. Scientists calculated the amounts of lead in the environment for different years and compared that to the rates of violent crime during those years. They concluded that a higher amount of lead corresponded to a rise in violent crime two decades later. Still, correlation does not imply causation, so more research was needed.Researchers tried to determine if the removal of lead from US gasoline in the 1970s could be linked to crime in the 1990s. Gathering lead data from each state, they plotted crime rates in each area. In those states with early or sharp declines in lead, there was a corresponding drop in violent crime 20 years later and vice versa. The lead causation theory has its supporters, with some claiming that 90 percent of the crime rate in the 20th century can be traced to lead. However, others are skeptical, citing a lack of evidence. Supporters argue that there can never be direct evidence because no one is going to purposely poison children with lead.

7 The Warrior Gene


Researchers suggest that some people are hardwired to commit violent crime. After taking blood samples from violent prisoners in Finland, the researchers found that repeat offenders had the genetic variants CDH13 and MAOA. They nicknamed it the “warrior gene.”MAOA metabolizes dopamine. If MAOA activity is decreased, the use of alcohol or drugs might induce a larger dopamine burst and spark aggressive behavior. CDH13 helps the development of neuronal connections in the brain and is an important factor in ADHD. Having both variations supposedly makes someone 13 times more likely to commit a violent crime. MAOA is located on the X chromosome, which could explain why most mass murderers are men. Women have two copies of the gene, so if one carries the variant, another normal gene could offset the effect. However, men have only one copy of the X chromosome, so they suffer the full effects of the variant if they have it.That is not to say that having either variant definitely makes someone a violent criminal. Researcher Jim Fallon found that he had the gene but did not have a history of violence. Environmental factors are also important, and MAOA is associated with higher rates of crime when the individual experienced childhood adversity.

6 Psychopathy May Be Evolutionary

Photo credit: Fabio Rodrigues Pozzebom/ABr

Psychopaths have different biology than normal humans, with some researchers arguing that psychopathy is evolutionary rather than a mental disorder. In tests, people with more psychopathic tendencies were less likely to harm their families. In an evolutionary sense, this meant that psychopaths acted to protect their own gene pool at the expense of others.The theory has many critics, but there are other factors suggesting that psychopathy is evolutionary. One anthropological hypothesis looked at the Kung Bushmen and the Mundurucu villagers. The Kung live in the harsh desert environment of South Africa where working together is essential for the tribe’s collective survival. There, reproductive success is dependent on how well one works with the tribe. Any psychopathic traits would be a hindrance to the survival of one’s genes.The Mundurucu live in the Amazon basin, where women do most of the farming while men compete for social status. It’s a culture where meat can be traded for sex, and reproductive success depends on where a man sits in the social hierarchy. This requires fearlessness, good verbal skills, and a lack of empathy—all traits of a psychopath. In that environment, psychopathy would be an advantage by evolutionary standards. Still, ideas like these do not completely discount the emergence of psychopathy as a mental disorder or a deliberate, behavioral choice. The prevailing theory is still that it is not an adaptive trait.

5 The Criminal Brain As A Legal Defense

The number of criminals using their brain scans to lighten their sentences has skyrocketed in recent years. Between 2007 and 2011, the number of cases in which judges mentioned neuroscientific evidence increased from 112 to 1,500. Researchers derived these numbers from court records. However, many cases were settled out of court and the database was incomplete, so the total number was likely to be even higher. Of course, this may not mean that neuroscience is affecting the outcome of more court cases, just that judges are discussing it more. In one case, a Virginia teacher was caught viewing child pornography and then convicted of child molestation. But the night before he went to jail, a brain tumor was discovered to have been causing his pedophiliac tendencies. Even without tumors, brains scans show that criminals’ brains sometimes do function differently. In one case, a woman murdered her sister, set fire to the corpse, and then attempted to murder her parents. She had her sentence reduced from life to 20 years because there was an abnormality in the region of her brain that regulates impulsivity and aggression. Neuroscience is often used in the courtroom to lighten sentences. But whether blaming criminal behavior on a person’s brain should affect legal outcomes is a matter of fierce debate.

4 Using Brain Implants To Prevent Crime


As in A Clockwork Orange, the idea of creating brain implants to make criminals upstanding members of society has been suggested. After all, we already use implants in our body to modify a number of other things. Some devices can even change our moods. The White House has already funded a $3 billion BRAIN Initiative, $70 million of which went to cranial implant research. Having a cranial implant that prevents crime is moving out of science fiction toward reality.A criminal could opt out of a death sentence by volunteering to have an implant that would control his temper or violent actions. Potentially, even a person’s negative thoughts could be suppressed, although that’s obviously a frightening concept. But if the alternative is death row, some people might be willing to take that step to preserve their lives and the lives of any potential victims.It’s been argued that some criminals are already having their identities altered with drugs that treat their criminal impulses like a mental disease. If medicine is already using brain implants to treat conditions like deafness and Alzheimer’s, why not also treat crime as a disease that can be cured?

3 Fighting Crime With Health And Fitness

A mother drinking or smoking while pregnant can double or triple the odds of her baby becoming a violent offender later in life. Lead exposure may also influence adult behavior. Poor nutrition at age three has been shown to cause more aggressive and antisocial behavior in the teenage years. With so many studies linking a child’s environment to violent crime later in life, some are questioning if we can manipulate biology to prevent it.Scientists are studying the effects of “biological intervention” to combat crime later in life. It doesn’t have to involve medication. Studies have shown that better nutrition, more exercise, and cognitive stimulation from ages three to five reduces crime at age 23 by 35 percent. When nurses visit poor mothers and provide advice to reduce smoking and alcohol consumption, juvenile delinquency is cut in half 15 years later.Adults can be affected by nutrition, too. Studies in England and the Netherlands showed that supplementing the diets of young prisoners with omega-3, which is critical for proper brain structure and function, has reduced the incidence of serious crimes by 35 percent. Studies like these suggest that reducing the likelihood of a child developing into an adult criminal may be as easy as providing good nutrition and avoiding toxins.

2 A Matter Of The Heart

Studies have shown that teens with a low resting heart rate may be at risk of becoming violent offenders when they become adults. In Sweden, military service was mandatory until 2009. Among other tests, every young man had his heart rate measured when he was about 18. Researchers analyzed this data and divided the men into five groups based on their heart rate.Surprisingly, those men with resting heart rates of no more than 60 beats per minute were 39 percent more likely to be convicted of a violent crime over the next few decades than the men with the highest heart rates of 83 or more beats per minute. Those violent crimes included murder, assault, and arson. The group with the lowest resting heart rates was also 25 percent more likely to commit nonviolent crimes like drug use and 39 percent more likely to be injured by an assault or in an accident.To explain this, researchers have suggested that a person with a low resting heart rate may have unusually low levels of psychological arousal, meaning that they feel less awake and alert. This may lead them to seek stimulating experiences like risky behaviors and crime. It may also mean that they have less of a reaction to mildly stressful experiences like getting your heart rate checked, which would mean that they are more fearless and prone to taking risks.

1 It’s Not All Genetic1-ted-bundy

Photo credit: State Archives of Florida

While a person’s biology may influence whether he becomes a criminal, it’s not all about a person’s genes. As we mentioned earlier, scientist Jim Fallon was researching the minds of serial killers and psychopaths when he discovered that his brain scan was like that of a psychopathic serial killer. Assuming Fallon wasn’t secretly murdering dozens of people, this type of finding suggests that genetic factors may only predispose a person to violence and psychopathic tendencies. When he realized that he had the mind of a killer, Fallon continued the experiment to check for other factors that are consistent with criminal behavior. His hypothesis was that killers often experience abuse or violence in their childhoods. For example, Ted Bundy was raised by his grandparents and originally thought that his mother was his sister. Once the truth was revealed, his cousin tormented him with that fact. His grandfather was also prone to violence.However, Fallon had grown up in a loving, caring household, which he thinks made all the difference. He’s a prime example of how neither biology nor environmental factors can solely determine a person’s fate.

Nathan keeps a Japan blog where he writes about the sights, expat life, and finds Japanese culture in everyday items. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter.

#Science

Samson Siasia on his kneels, Begs Kidnappers To Free His Mother

Under-23 football team coach on Tuesday appealed to kidnappers who seized his mother to release her, as he tries to secure the side’s qualification for next year’s Olympics. Samson Siasia said his 72-year-old mother Ogere was abducted on Monday in the village of Odoni, in southern Bayelsa state, by three men on a motorbike.