Criminal and antisocial behaviour threaten cooperative social organization, and each culture has developed methods to isolate and punish criminals. However, criminal behaviour has not been eliminated in any culture, and so it is rational to try to use scientific approaches to explain the origins and causes of criminal behaviour, and to suggest ways of preventing crime or rehabilitating offenders. There has been extensive research on environmental causes of criminal behaviour: this book examines the evidence for genetic contributions. Twin and adoption studies suggest that there may be genetic contributions to some criminal behaviours. The data are examined in detail in this book, which includes discussion of the methodological problems of disentangling genetic and environmental sources of variance in behaviour. In animals, aggression is commonly an appropriate response to environmental stimuli: data from the relevant animal studies of the inheritance of aggressiveness are included in the book. There have been reports suggesting neuropharmacological abnormalities in violent offenders. These represent potential underlying mechanisms whereby genetic influences could be mediated. The recent evidence regarding brain and, in particular, neurotransmitter abnormalities is discussed. A heritable tendency to behave in a particular way would have significant implications for criminology, particularly for rehabilitation strategies. Important issues also arise for moral philosophy. Separate chapters examine evolutionary and anthropological aspects of violence and warfare. The book is truly multidisciplinary and contains contributions from behavioural geneticists, population geneticists, evolutionary theorists, neuroscientists, philosophers and criminologists.
Author(s): CIBA Foundation Symposium
Edition: 1
Publisher: Wiley
Year: 1996
Language: English
Pages: 294
GENETICS OF CRIMINAL AND ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR......Page 5
Contents......Page 7
Participants......Page 9
lntroduction: concepts of antisocial behaviour, of cause, and of genetic influences......Page 11
Issues in the search for candidate genes in mice as potential animal models of human aggression......Page 31
General discussion I......Page 46
Aggression from a developmental perspective: genes, environments and interactions......Page 55
A twin study of self-reported criminal behaviour
......Page 71
Heterogeneity among juvenile antisocial behaviours: findings from the Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioural Development......Page 86
General discussion II......Page 103
Predisposition to criminality: Swedish adoption studies in retrospect......Page 109
Assessing the role of genetics in crime using adoption cohorts......Page 125
General discussion III......Page 139
Direct analysis of candidate genes in impulsive behaviours......Page 149
MAOA deficiency and abnormal behaviour: perspectives on an assocation......Page 165
Serotonin in alcoholic violent offenders......Page 178
Evolutionary adaptationism: another biological approach to criminal and antisocial be haviour......Page 193
General discussion IV......Page 206
Chronic problems in understanding tribal violence and warfare......Page 212
The implications for responsibility of possible genetic factors in the explanation of violence......Page 247
Legal implications of genetics and crime research......Page 258
Concluding remarks......Page 275
Index of contributors......Page 282
Subject index......Page 284
