Genetics and crime
To prison for genes
Anton Chugunov, "Biomolecule"
Criminologists have long wondered whether the antisocial behavior of criminals is determined solely by the negative influence of the environment (such as upbringing), or whether a genetic factor (i.e. heredity) can play a significant role here. American sociologists conducted a statistical analysis of a large group of young people, identifying among them personalities prone to criminal behavior. Further, comparing the kinship relationships between the study participants, they found that both excessive aggressiveness and "pathological law-abiding" are deviations from the norm and to a certain extent are determined by hereditary factors. Another found relationship between behavior and genes may affect criminology in the future.
The plot of the fantastic film "Special Opinion", based on an early story by the classic cyberpunk Philip K. Dick,
is the activity of the special service for the prevention of crimes, using visionaries in the work,
knowing in advance who and when will commit a crime.
In the early 1990s, Terrie Moffitt, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, published a classification of the types of social behavior currently used in criminology. According to this scheme, people are usually divided into three groups: 1) "inveterate" criminals (life-course persistent offenders), 2) offenders "in their youth" (adolescence-limited offenders) and 3) "abstainers" (abstainer). The first group ("recidivists") differs in that it behaves antisocially or criminally from early childhood to the last breath; 5-10% of them in the human population, but they commit the vast majority of all crimes. The second group sins with minor offenses (excessive consumption of alcohol and drugs, petty thefts, fights, abusive sexual behavior), but only in their youth, during the "crisis" period preceding adulthood. "Abstainers" are people who are not noticed in antisocial behavior either in adulthood, or in youth, or in childhood.
The slightly mocking name of this group of the most exemplary citizens (abstainer also means "teetotaler") arose, apparently, due to the fact that Moffitt, based on her experience of studying people with behavioral abnormalities, intuitively felt that complete avoidance of antisocial behavior is exactly the same deviation from the norm as an irresistible desire to do something bad. But only at that time, probably, there was still no clear understanding of how predisposition to different types of behavior can be associated with hereditary factors.
A group of American sociologists and criminologists conducted a study designed to determine whether certain behavioral tendencies can be explained by hereditary factors (Barnes J.C., Beaver K.M., Boutwell B.B. (2011). Examining the genetic underpinnings to Moffitt’s developmental taxonomy: a behavioral genetic analysis. Criminology 49, 923-954). Their research was based not on the principles of genetics and molecular biology, but on a statistical analysis of a fairly large sample of sibling pairs (brothers /sisters/cousins), which allows us to judge whether any trait is linked to heredity or not.
"The central idea of the work was to test Moffitt's assumption that our genes can say a lot about which path we will take in life," says Barnes, the first author of the work and professor of criminology at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Dallas (USA). - "In addition, in her classification, she (Moffitt) it seems to hint to us that genetic factors should play a much more prominent role in the case of recidivist criminals than in "normal" people who flirt with the law a little only in particularly enthusiastic moments of youth" (ScienceDaily: Genes Influence Criminal Behavior).
In total, the study included more than 2,000 pairs of people who are either identical (289 pairs), or fraternal (1,486) twins, or half-brothers/sisters (375), or cousins (134). All of them were selected based on the US National Study on Adolescent Health (Add Health), which implies a three-time survey at intervals of a year and six years from the time of high school. To determine the degree of their addiction to illegal acts, a special questionnaire included questions about acts of antisocial behavior over the past 12 months: graffiti painting, property damage, lying to parents, supermarket thefts, serious fights, injuries, escapes from home, theft, car theft, burglary, armed assault, drug trafficking, defiant behavior in a public place, etc.
Since the data of quite young people were analyzed, and their full "criminal trace" for a lifetime could not be obtained, they were enrolled in "recidivists", "young greens" and "painek" on the basis of a questionnaire. So, in order to be considered a hardened criminal, it was necessary to score quite a lot of "points" in each of the three questionnaires conducted over six years. Then these data were used in a "twin" analysis, which allows us to assess the dependence of a particular trait on the degree of kinship.
"The main result of our work is that genetic factors in the case of "repeat offenders" play a greater role [56-70%] than the environment," Barnes stressed. – "For "abstainers", the choice of their path is made under approximately equal influence of the environment and genes. And least of all [35%] the genetic factor affects the fate of "normal" people who commit illegal acts only in their youth."
This result emphasizes that the "norm" is indeed the second group, and "recidivists" and "goody-goody" become so largely due to genetic factors that have not yet been established. By the way, the relationship between genes and behavior has been studied quite closely by scientists in recent years (A word about the genetics of behavior).
At the same time, Barnes clarifies that, in his opinion, there is no "gene for criminal behavior." This is still a behavior that a person learns under certain conditions. However, the propensity for such a life path can be determined by hundreds, if not thousands of genes, each contributing its own bit to the emotional background, which can eventually form criminal character traits.
The link between genes and criminal behavior can become a bone of contention in criminology, which nowadays considers only social and related factors as the cause of pathological behavior changes. The problem is how to use the new information: the cyberpunk picture appears very clearly before our eyes, where the "gene police" of the future arrests people only because their genes contain a predisposition to crime.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru
13.02.2012