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
Famous quotes containing the words criminal and/or behavior:
“Think of admitting the details of a single case of the criminal court into our thoughts, to stalk profanely through their very sanctum sanctorum for an hour, ay, for many hours! to make a very barroom of the mind’s inmost apartment, as if for so long the dust of the street had occupied us,—the very street itself, with all its travel, its bustle, and filth, had passed through our thoughts’ shrine! Would it not be an intellectual and moral suicide?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“To be told that our child’s behavior is “normal” offers little solace when our feelings are badly hurt, or when we worry that his actions are harmful at the moment or may be injurious to his future. It does not help me as a parent nor lessen my worries when my child drives carelessly, even dangerously, if I am told that this is “normal” behavior for children of his age. I’d much prefer him to deviate from the norm and be a cautious driver!”
—Bruno Bettelheim (20th century)