What exactly causes people to turn their back on social mores and commit acts of theft and violence? Is it poverty that leaves some with few options? Poor education? Are some people just born criminals? Researchers have tried to identify the particular reasons why some geographical regions and certain people are more prone to committing crime than others, and some of their findings are downright shocking. Here are seven of the weirdest, most bizarre, and most unexpected situational factors that science says can impact crime rates.

1) Baby Names

According to one study, we should all be thankful that Al Capone wasn’t called “Zyzzyz Capone,” because then he would have truly met his potential as a violent public threat. In a study published in Social Science Quarterly, David Kalist and Daniel Lee, economists at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, found that boys with weird-sounding names are more likely to find themselves in front of a juvenile justice judge than boys with more common names. But why on Earth would someone be more likely to knock over a liquor store just because his name isn’t “Michael?”

It turns out other people judge you if you have an unusual name, and that in turn changes how you feel about yourself. And people who feel rejected by society are more prone to acting on their criminal impulses. So maybe kids who appear to be “rebels without a cause” are merely “rebels without a name that sounds like the other kids’.”

The researchers also speculate that people in lower economic brackets are more likely to give their children unusual names, and since there is a close tie between poverty and crime, this could also lead to kids with atypical names breaking the law more often.

2) Spanking

No doubt you are friends with someone on Facebook who occasionally gripes about how wussy and permissive parents are nowadays. “These brats get away with murder,” they’ll post without naming names, “in my day when kids acted up they got spanked. It taught us manners.” That’s a nice theory, but does turning a child’s backside the shade of a Poinsettia in full bloom actually get them to behave better?

Actually, it has the exact opposite effect, according to Murray Straus, co-director of University of New Hampshire Family Research Lab. He studied the behavior of college students from 15 different countries, documenting whether or not they were spanked as children, what their relationship with their parents was like otherwise, and whether or not they committed any crimes. According to Straus, “The results show that spanking is associated with an increase in subsequent misbehavior, which is the opposite of what almost everyone believes.” Available research shows that corporal punishments increase the odds that someone will go on to be violent later in life, even if the spanking was done by loving parents just hoping to set their child on the straight and narrow.

3) Trees

How exactly do trees affect crime rates? Do they give muggers a good place to hide before holding up an innocent passerby on the street? Do they give jewelry thieves a nice spot to stash their goods while they run from the police? Actually, rather than giving crime a boost, well-placed and big enough trees tend to steer criminals away from their antisocial ways.

Researchers with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest (PNW) and Southern Research Stations wanted to know if there was a connection between crime and trees, so they studied crime rates in Portland, Oregon. They gathered data about crimes committed between 2005 and 2007 and paired that knowledge against the presence of trees in the areas in which those crimes were committed. The foliage-loving scientists discovered that areas which contained large trees experienced less crime. The researchers believed that bulky, healthy trees signaled to potential criminals that the area was well-maintained, so they were more likely to get caught.

However, the research also contained one caveat: areas with many smaller trees actually saw an increase in crime rates. So you should be selective in your tree planting if you plan on using crime-deterring landscaping in lieu of an alarm system.

4) The Fear Of God

It’s sometimes debated whether or not the greatest thing standing between mankind and the destruction of society at the hands of our basest, most selfish, and most amoral instincts is the religious sense that give us connection to a higher power. But the true story of how religious beliefs affect our behavior is more complicated than what they teach in Sunday school. It turns out that when it comes to being good, societies who hope for everlasting paradise are more criminal than those who fear supernatural punishment.

According to a comprehensive analysis of 26 years of data involving 143,197 people in 67 countries, belief in a perfectly benevolent deity actually increases the amount of violent crime. Azim F. Shariff, professor of psychology and director of the Culture and Morality Lab at the University of Oregon, says “a nation's rate of belief in hell predicts lower crime rates, but the nation's rate of belief in heaven predicts higher crime rates, and these are strong effects.” It appears that when people have an image of a gentle and forgiving God, they’ll carry out more criminal acts. But when they feel that God takes a hard line against wrongdoers, they’ll be on their best behavior.

This research corroborates other studies also performed by Shariff, which found that undergraduate students who believed in a forgiving God were more likely to cheat than those who believed in a punishing God. Unfortunately, many of those same students who tried to trick their way into getting “A”s no doubt discovered that University school boards do not share the same sense of forgiveness.

5) High School Sports

Sure, high school sports might be fun, and they’re a nice way to get alumni to donate money during Homecoming Week, but what practical value do they really have?

How about decreasing the rate of violent crime?

Researchers at the University of Michigan looked at the crime rate in nearly 1,200 schools and compared that data against the strength of each school’s athletic department. While the schools full of jocks didn’t affect rates of minor crimes like property crime, drug use, and possession of a weapon, it did have a statistically significant effect on violent behavior. For every 10 percent increase in sports participation, serious crimes went down .05 percent.

6) Daylight Savings Time

For most people daylight savings time means setting your clock one hour forward and feeling like you lost an hour of sleep when you wake up for work the following Monday morning. But a study from University of Virginia and College of William and Mary shows that pushing clocks forward actually cuts down on crime, and not in minor way.

The study examined the crime rates three weeks before and three weeks after daylight savings time went into effect. It found that during the “extra” hour of daylight, robbery dropped by 51 percent, murder dropped by 43 percent, and rape dropped by 56 percent. And since crime didn’t rise noticeably during other hours, this resulted in a significant overall drop in the crime rate immediately following the implementation of daylight savings time.

It turns out criminals are simply less likely to do their dirty deeds when the sun is out, perhaps because they are more likely to be recognized and have an eyewitness to their crimes in the brightness of daylight. Or maybe they are just as dazed by the time change as the rest of us.

7) Warm Weather

The summer months are a time for sunbathing, outdoor grills, and (apparently) mugging people. A research project lead by economist Solomon Hsiang, of the University of California, Berkeley, examined 60 separate studies on weather and how they connected to behavior. The study found that extremely hot and dry conditions cause people to become more violent.

There are two reasons why this might be. First, people just simply spend more time outside when it’s hot out, so there is a greater opportunity to commit violent acts. Second, hot weather increases heart rate and can make people more emotional. A minor quibble is more likely to turn into a violent confrontation when the sun is pounding on our backs, and we are in an agitated state. “When the weather gets bad, we tend to be more willing to hurt other people,” said Hsiang.

The researchers were even able to pinpoint (to the exact degree) the effect that weather has on crime rates. For every increase of 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit, the likelihood of violent crime goes up 2 to 4 percent. So, the next time the sun is out, make sure to grab your sunscreen to fight the harsh rays, a water bottle to fight dehydration, and a can of pepper spray to fight off the criminals.

DISCLAIMER: It is PROHIBITED by law to use our service or the information it provides to make decisions about consumer credit, employment, insurance, tenant screening, or for any other purpose subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 USC 1681 et seq. Instant Checkmate does not provide consumer reports and is not a consumer reporting agency. The information available on our website may not be 100% accurate, complete, or up to date, so do not use this information as a substitute for your own due diligence, especially if you have concerns about a person’s criminal history. Instant Checkmate does not make any representation or warranty about the accuracy of the information available through our website or about the character or integrity of the person about whom you inquire. For more information, please review Instant Checkmate Terms of Use.