#biosocial

So I think this is important to touch on, especially if you are skeptical about adding science into explaining criminal behavior. I’ll be breaking up these misconceptions (one per post), but if you are interested, check out the book I got it from through the reference section!

1. “Criminal behavior is defined by laws that are socially constructed and that vary from time to time and from country to country. How could genetics matter to the explanation of crime if laws are ever changing”  (Beaver, 2019, p.25)?

So Beaver argued that this misconception came from a lack of understanding of the differences between “criminal behavior” and “criminality.”

Criminal behavior: Defined by socially enacted contracts prescribing appropriate and inappropriate behaviors.

Think about the social contract we signed way back when where the government was charged with protecting us in exchange for us giving up our freedom to break peoples’ ankles. (I mentioned this in a post describing the Classical Paradigm if you’re interested).

When you think about criminal behavior, you have to remember that the only reason why a certain behavior is considered criminal is because there is a law or something put into place that calls it criminal. Killing someone is considered criminal behavior because your state has deemed it as such. 

What is considered criminal behavior for one state or country may not be for another. 

Criminality: Refers to the underlying traits that are ultimately responsible for bringing about criminal conduct.

So as I’ve said, there is NOT a crime gene. Certain genes predispose you to antisocial behaviors (make you more or less likely to engage in certain behaviors) due to your gene’s influence on your personality traits.

Why?

“Because personality traits are shaped by a range of biosocial factors and it is these personality traits (in conjunction with other factors) that ultimately lead a person to commit a crime” (Beaver, 2019, p.25).

When biosocial criminologist are talking about genetic influences on crime, they are really talking about criminality and how genetics indirectly influences behavior.

Hope that made sense! 

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References

So, in a nutshell, gene-environment interplay links genetic and environmental factors together to explain antisocial behaviors. It is said that heritability (the amount of phenotypic variance - difference in personality/behavior - caused by genetics) accounts for about 50% of antisocial outcomes while environmental factors also account for about 50%. 

I’m not going to go into depth about genetics and environmental factors in this post, but I will just give you guys a list of topics that would be pertinent to biosocial criminology. Keep in mind these topics are related to antisocial phenotypes, not criminal behavior. 

Genetic Factors:

Twin Studies

Monozygotic Twins vs. Dizygotic (DZ) Twins

Adoption Studies

Molecular Genetics:

Polymorphisms

Neurotransmission

Reuptake and Enzyme production

Dopamengeric System

Dopamine 

DAT1

DRD2

Serotonergic System

Seretonin

5-HTTLPR (serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism)

Production of enzymes

COMT (catechol-O-methyl transferase gene

MAOA (Monoamine oxidase A)

Environmental influences:

Shared environments

Nonshared environments

So, along with the above, there are three main types of gene environment interplay that I will talk about in separate posts:

Gene-Environment interactions (GxE)

Gene-Environment Correlations (rGE)

Epigenetics

This post was really an outline of behavioral genetics as it applies to criminology. Honestly, each bullet point could be its own post, so I will probably work on that. This is by no means all that is related to gene-environment interplay, but it’s what I have found in common with what I have read so far. 

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References

Beaver, K. M. (2009). Biosocial Criminology: A Primer. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.

ભારતમાં વ્યભિચારમાં 34 ટકાનો જંગી ઉછાળો

એક વર્ષ અગાઉ સુપ્રીમ કોર્ટે વ્યભિચાર ગુનો નથી. આ ચુકાદાના એક વર્ષ બાદ એક વેબસાઈટ દ્વારા કરવામાં આવેલા સર્વેમાં સામે આવ્યું છે કે સુપ્રીમના ચુકાદા બાદ વ્યભિચારમાં વધારો થયો છે. લગ્નેત્તર સંબંધો રાખવા ઈચ્છતા પરણીત લોકો માટેની વેબસાઈટ ગ્લીડેનના એક સર્વેમાં જાણવા મળ્યું છે કે ભારતમાં વ્યભિચારમાં 734 ટકાનો જંગી ઉછાળો જોવા મળ્યો છે.

વેબસાઈટ દ્વારા હાથ ધરવામાં આવેલા અભ્યાસમાં જાણવા મળ્યું છે કે અગાઉ…

By Kevin M. Beaver, Joseph A. Schwartz, and Jamie M. Gajos

Abstract (from website)

The biosocial perspective highlights the importance of both genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behaviors. Results from biosocial research reveal that genetic influences account for approximately 50 % of the variance in antisocial phenotypes with most of the remaining variance being attributable to nonshared environmental influences. Furthermore, specific genetic polymorphisms have been found to be associated with an increased risk of displaying antisocial behavior. The effects of these polymorphisms, however, are often strongest when coupled with certain criminogenic environments. We discuss the implications of these research findings and why biosocial criminology is a promising perspective to employ in the study of criminal behavior. 

This chapter gives a good overview of gene-environment interplay and I highly recommend it if you want to get into biosocial criminology.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a full publicly accessible (free) version, so I will give the link to the chapter on the Springer website. If you are in college, you may be able to use your institutional login to get the entire book like I did.

Chapter 8 [Link]

I did, however, find part of the chapter on Google Books, but they did take out a few pages. 

Entire book with redacted pages [Link]

Chapter 8 pp.109-122

For the ebook pages, pp.107-122

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Reference

Alright, so I had my first exam of the year (A2 Psychology) on Wednesday. And I managed to completely screw it up. I didn't revise enough, and so I could only remember a few things about each question. (there are 3 questions, and you have to write an essay for all of them. They're worth 24 marks each). So it was all going alright, I suppose, and then I got to the last question. And everything went to shit.

I literally couldn't remember anything about the topic. So I had to leave the question blank. Which means I'll be lucky to scrape an E.

The question was on the biosocial approach to gender, which is the only one (of six theories) that I didn't know. 

BUT