Criminal Behavior
In a groundbreaking study in psychopathy or criminal behavior, Mednick, William Gabrielli, and Barry Hutching in an article forScience article showed that anti-social behavior to have a genetic component, at least in relation to property crimes. Using an adoption paradigm, the authors found no correlation between criminal conviction in the adoptive parents and their children but there was a correlation between biological father conviction and child conviction. The authors stressed that genetic influences do not mean that anti-social behavior is completely genetically determined, but that it has a genetic component. Earlier in his career Mednick, had hypothesized that Autonomic under-arousal may be a genetic factor predisposing to anti-social behavior because under-arousal slows the socialization process. He helped develop a New Zealand cohort with one of his most notable students at the University of Southern California, Terrie Moffitt, who is a full professor at Duke University and has developed her own theories of genetic X environmental interactions in the genesis of anti-social behavior.
Read more about this topic: Sarnoff A. Mednick
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