Kevin and Stephen get mixed up at birth?

Question

Kevin was originally from a dirt-poor family, and ends up with a rich family. Stephen on the other hand is from the rich family, and ends up with the dirt-poor family.

They are the same race (obviously, or they wouldn't have got mixed up).

In twenty years time, one of them is at college and the other is in prison.

Who is where, and why?

Answer 1

Depends if there was a history of mental disability or instability in one of the two families

It depends on what he is in prison for some crimes are statistically white collar and some blue collar

It depends on the parents of each child not necessarily the wealth of the parents

Depends a little bit on how rich or how poor as far as % chance each will end up where

You can't solve this question because there isn't enough information and you know that.  What exactly point are you trying to extract?

Answer 2

There are a huge number of variables at play in the answer to this question, but I have a feeling you are asking the social science favourite, nature versus nurture.

Unless there is a specific genetic abnormality that would predispose one child to criminality over the other, we would have to look at the way each child was socialised. Can we assume that education is held to a higher status in a rich family than a poor family? Can we assume that there is a higher rate of criminality in poor families than rich ones?

Social research and statistics would suggest that, for purely social reasons, Kevin would be more likely to find himself in college where as Stephen would have a higher statistical chance of finding himself in prison.