RALEIGH, N.C. — Maybe some boys really were born to be wild.
Researchers at UNC Chapel Hill announced this week that they had found three genes that appear to affect the probability of a life of crime.
The study looked at roughly 1,100 boys in middle school and high school, ages 12-18.
In 1996 and again in 2002, the participants were asked to take a 12-question survey to gauge their delinquent tendencies. The participants’ delinquency scores were matched against their genetics to look for a correlation.
The results clearly showed a genetic basis for aggressive behavior.
The idea that personality and behavior can be predicted by genetics is not a new one, and has a dark past.
“Bad genes” was the basis for Henry Goddard’s theory of eugenics in the early 20th century, and was used as a justification for racial supremacy.
In the current research, scientists emphasized that having the gene doesn’t necessarily mean a child is destined to become a hardened criminal.
“It’s not like with some genetic diseases like cystic fibrosis or Huntington’s, where when you have the genes the likelihood increases by 5,000fold,” said Guang Guo, a professor of sociology at UNC-CH and the study’s lead author. Parenting and other social factors can completely override the influence of the genes, he said.
