Genetics and Crime: Integrating New Genomic Discoveries Into Psychological Research About Antisocial Behavior.

ABSTRACT: Drawing on psychological and sociological theories of crime causation, we tested the hypothesis that genetic risk for low educational attainment (assessed via a genome-wide polygenic score) is associated with criminal offending. We further tested hypotheses of how polygenic risk relates to the development of antisocial behavior from childhood through adulthood. Across the Dunedin and Environmental Risk (E-Risk) birth cohorts of individuals growing up 20 years and 20,000 kilometers apart, education polygenic scores predicted risk of a criminal record with modest effects. Polygenic risk manifested during primary schooling in lower cognitive abilities, lower self-control, academic difficulties, and truancy, and it was associated with a life-course-persistent pattern of antisocial behavior tha

SUBMITTER: Wertz J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5945301 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature