Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T16:56:20.149Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Genes and Antisocial Behavior: Perceived versus Real Threats to Jurisprudence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Gregory Carey  and
Irving I. Gottesman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Combine the following: medicine, ethics, jurisprudence, behavioral genetics, and antisocial behavior (ASB). Given our level of scientific knowledge today, this combination is more akin to a cerebral smorgasbord than to a dinner where starter, entree, wine, and dessert are carefully chosen to complement one another. Hence, any survey of menus must be highly selective. We accept as a given that there is a noteworthy genetic influence on ASB no matter how it is defined. In terms of behavioral research, the magnitude of that genetic influence is substantial, but so is the impact from the environment, broadly defined to include pre-and post-natal, physical (e.g., anoxia, fetal alcohol syndrome, or crack) as well as psychosocial (e.g., quality of parenting, ethnic culture, or religion) elements.

We will discuss some of the major issues raised by this fact of genetic influence that have most applicability to topics usually raised by observers outside of behavioral genetics.

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , Summer 2006 , pp. 342 - 351
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Some of the numerous reviews in the field are: Carey, G., “Genetics and Violence,” in Reiss, A. J. Jr. Miczek, K. A. and Roth, J. A., eds., Understanding and Preventing Violence, vol. 2: Biobehavioral Influences (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1994): 21–58; Carey, G., “Human Genetics for the Social Sciences,” (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005): at 431–457; DiLalla, L. F. and Gottesman, I. I., “Heterogeneity of Causes for Delinquency and Criminality: Lifespan Perspectives,” Development and Psychopathology 1 (1989): 339–349; Miles, D. R. and Carey, G., “Genetic and Environmental Architecture on Human Aggression,” Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 72 (1997): 207–217; Moffitt, T. E., “The New Look of Behavioral Genetics in Developmental Psychopathology: Gene-Environment Interplay in Antisocial Behaviors,” Psychological Bulletin 131 (2005): 533–554; Rhee, S. H. and Waldman, I. D., “Genetic and Environmental Influences on Antisocial Behavior: A Meta-Analysis of Twin and Adoption Studies,” Psychological Bulletin 128 (2002): 490–529; Bock, G. R. and Goode, J. A., eds., Genetics of Criminal and Antisocial Behaviour (Chichester: Wiley, 1996); Patrick, C. J., ed., Handbook of Psychopathy (New York: Guilford Press, 2005).Google Scholar
Anastasi, A., “Heredity, Environment, and the Question ‘How?’” Psychological Review 65 (1958): 197–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carey, , supra note 1 (2005), at 1–6; Loehlin, J. C. and Nichols, R. C., Heredity, Environment, and Personality (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1976); Turkheimer, E. and Gottesman, I. I., “Individual Differences and the Canalization of Human Behavior,” Developmental Psychology 27 (1991): 18–22; Turkheimer, E., “Three Laws of Behavioral Genetics and what they Mean,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 9 (2000): 160–164.Google Scholar
Dunne, M. P. Martin, N. G. Statham, D. J. Slutske, W. S. et al., “Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Variance in Age at First Sexual Intercourse,” Psychological Science 8 (1997): 211–216; Lyons, M. J. Goldberg, J. Eisen, S. A. True, W. Tsuang, M. T. Meyer, J. M. and Henderson, W. G., “Do Genes Influence Exposure to Trauma? A Twin Study of Combat,” American Journal of Medical Genetics 48 (1993): 22–27; McGue, M. and Lykken, D. T., “Genetic Influence on Risk of Divorce,” Psychological Science 3 (1992): 368–373; Plomin, R. Corley, R. DeFries, J. C. and Fulker, D. W., “Individual Differences in Television Viewing in Early Childhood: Nature as well as Nurture,” Psychological Science 1 (1990): 371–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
An endophenotype is an observed trait that is closer to gene action than the phenotype that is under study. See Gottesman, I. I. and Gould, T. D., “The Endophenotype Concept in Psychiatry: Etymology and Strategic Intentions,” American Journal of Psychiatry 160 (2003): 636–645. An example of an endophenotype for ASB would be resting heart rate. See Raine, A., “Biosocial Studies of Antisocial and Violent Behavior in Children and Adults: A Review,” Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 30 (2002): 311–326; Waldman, I. D., “Statistical Approaches to Complex Phenotypes: Evaluating Neuropsychological Endophenotypes for Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder,” Biological Psychiatry 57 (2005): 1347–1356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
For non-technical introductions for how genes in the brain respond to stress, see Carey, , supra note 1 (2005), at 57–60, and for how genes are involved in memory, see Fields, R. D., “Making Memories Stick,” Scientific American (2005).Google Scholar
Wasserman, D., “Is there Value in Identifying Individual Genetic Predispositions to Violence?” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 32 (2004): 24–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The heritability is the square of the correlation between genotypic values – read “genetic risk index” – and phenotypic values. Hence, the square root of heritability provides an estimate of the correlation. This of course, is an approximation, but science can arrive at very satisfactory approximations. Has anyone ever directly measured the distance between the earth and the moon directly with a tape measure?Google Scholar
For a non-technical introduction to PKU, see Carey, , supra note 1 (2005), at 70–74. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), and the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), among many others provide current information about prenatal, neonatal, and postnatal genetic testing. Advances in these fields are so rapid that the web sites of these organizations should be consulted to be abreast of current knowledge.Google Scholar
Meehl, P. E., “Specific Genetic Etiology, Psychodynamics and Therapeutic Nihilism,” International Journal of Mental Health 1 (1972): 10–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
This mechanism is part of what is often termed “passive GE correlation.” See Plomin, R. DeFries, J. C. and Loehlin, J. C., “Gene-Environment Interaction and Correlation in the Analysis of Human Behavior,” Psychological Bulletin 84 (1978): 309–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
This mechanism is part of what is often termed “active GE correlation.” See Plomin, et al., supra note 11, and Scarr, S. and McCartney, K., “How People Make their Own Environments: A Theory of Genotype Environment Effects,” Child Development 54 (1983): 424–435.Google Scholar
Eaves, L. J. Last, K. Martin, N. G. and Jinks, J. L., “A Progressive Approach to Non-Additivity and Genotype-Environmental Covariance in the Analysis of Human Differences,” British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology 30 (1977): 1–42.Google Scholar
Carey, G. and Gottesman, I. I., “The Genetics of Antisocial Behavior: Substance versus Sound Bytes,” Politics and the Life Sciences 15 (1996): 88–90. Carey, , supra note 1 (2005), at 448–453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carey, , supra note 1 (2005), at 450.Google Scholar
Baron, R. M. and Kenny, D. A., “The Moderator-Mediator Variable Distinction in Social Psychological Research: Conceptual, Strategic, and Statistical Considerations,” Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 51 (1986): 1173–1182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brunner, H. G. Nelen, M. Breakefield, X. O. Ropers, H. H. and van Oost, B. A., “Abnormal Behavior Associated with a Point Mutation in the Structural Gene for Monoamine Oxidase A,” Science 262 (1993): 578–580; Brunner, H. G. Nelen, M. R. van Zan-Dvoort, P. Abeling, N. G. van Gennip, A. H. Wolters, E. C. Kuiper, M. A. Ropers, H. H. and van Oost, B. A., “X-Linked Borderline Mental Retardation with Prominent Behavioral Disturbance: Phenotype, Genetic Localization, and Evidence for Disturbed Monoamine Metabolism,” American Journal of Human Genetics 52 (1993): 1032–1039; Brunner, H. G., “MAOA Deficiency and Abnormal Behaviour: Perspectives on an Association,” Ciba Found Symposium 194 (1996): 155–164; discussion 164–157CrossRefGoogle Scholar
For example, see “Aggression Gene Found, Researchers Say,” USA Today, March 20, 1996: 1–2; Morrell, V., “Evidence Found for a Possible ‘Aggression Gene’,” Science 260 (1993): 1722–1723.Google Scholar
Breakefield, Xandra (personal communication), Brunner, Han (personal communication), Goldman, David (personal communication).Google Scholar
Mobley v. State, 426 S.E. and 150 (Ga. 1993). See Denno, D. W., “Legal Implications of Genetics and Crime Research,” Ciba Foundation Symposium 194 (1996): 248–264.Google Scholar
Curriden, M., “His Lawyer Says it's in the Killer's Genes,” National Law Journal 17 (1994): A12. Stephen Mobley was executed on March 1, 2005.Google Scholar
The pedigree is reproduced in Denno, , supra note 20, 252–253. The inconsistency was pointed out at the conference in which this pedigree was presented. See Denno, , supra note 20, at 256.Google Scholar
Brunner, , supra note 17 at 161.Google Scholar
See Brunner, , supra 17, at 156–158 for a description of the affected phenotype in this pedigree. For reviews of the literature on intelligence, mental retardation and ASB, see Wilson, J. Q. and Herrnstein, R. J., Crime and Human Nature (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985): at 148–172; and Herrnstein, R. J. and Murray, C., The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (New York: Free Press, 1994): at 369–388.Google Scholar
Schuback, D. E. Mulligan, E. L. Sims, K. B. Tivol, E. A. Greenberg, B. D. Chang, S. F. Yang, S. L. Mau, Y. C. Shen, C. Y. Ho, M. S. Yang, N. H. Butler, M. G. Fink, S. Schwartz, C. E. Berlin, F. Breakefield, X. O. Murphy, D. L. and Hsu, Y. P., “Screen for MAOA Mutations in Target Human Groups,” American Journal of Medical Genetics 88 (1999): 25–28.3.0.CO;2-E>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eaves, Lindon (personal communication).Google Scholar
The figure is based on, but not identical to, Figure 1 in Caspi, A. McClay, J. Moffitt, T. E. Mill, J. Martin, J. Craig, I. W. Taylor, A. and Poulton, R., “Role of Genotype in the Cycle of Violence in Maltreated Children,” Science 297 (2002): 851–854.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haberstick, B. C. Lessem, J. M. Hopfer, C. J. Smolen, A. Ehringer, M. A. Timberlake, D. and Hewitt, J. K., “Monoamine Oxidase A (MAOA) and Antisocial Behaviors in the Presence of Childhood and Adolescent Maltreatment,” American Journal of Medical Genetics, B, Neuropsychiatric Genetics 135 (2005): 59–64 failed to replicate findings of Caspi, , supra note 26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mountain, J. L. and Risch, N., “Assessing Genetic Contributions to Phenotypic Differences among ‘Racial’ and ‘Ethnic’ Groups,” Nature Genetics 36 (2004): S48–53; Tang, H. Quertermous, T. Rodriguez, B. Kardia, S. L. Zhu, X. Brown, A. Pankow, J. S. Province, M. A. Hunt, S. C. Boerwinkle, E. Schork, N. J. and Risch, N. J., “Genetic Structure, Self-Identified Race/Ethnicity, and Confounding in Case-Control Association Studies,” American Journal of Human Genetics 76 (2005): 268–275 used a blind statistical clustering algorithm to assigned individuals to genetic “groups” and reported only five discrepancies to self-reported race/ethnicity among 3,636 respondents.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duster, T., “Behavioral Genetics and Explanations of the Link between Crime, Violence, and Race,” in Parens, E. Chapman, A. R., and Press, N., eds., Wrestling with Behavioral Genetics: Science, Ethics, and Public Conversation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2006).Google Scholar
Flynn, J. R., “The Mean IQ of Americans: Massive Gains 1932 to 1978,” Psychological Bulletin 95 (1984): 29–51; Flynn, J. R., “Massive IQ Gains in 14 Nations: What IQ Tests Really Measure,” Psychological Bulletin 101 (1987): 171–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See Loehlin, J. C., “Should we do Research on Race Differences in Intelligence?” Intelligence 16 (1992): 1–4. For a viewpoint on presenting results on genetics and race differences as applied to IQ. We are unaware of any similar published views on presenting research on genes, race, and ASB.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carey, , supra note 1 (2005), at 435.Google Scholar
Lander, E. S. and Budowle, B., “DNA Fingerprinting Dispute laid to Rest,” Nature 371 (1994): 735–738.CrossRefGoogle Scholar