Biological Influences on Criminal Behavior

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the link between genetics and criminality and examines how predictions of any future threat have become an important factor within the criminal justice structure. The paper points out the inaccuracy of these predictions and explores whether modern research in behavioral genetics can improve this tool. The paper concludes that the probability of being able to use genetic research to predict human behavior or to explain expressed behaviors is, at present, unlikely.

From the Paper:

"The link between genetics and criminality is not a new idea. Since the nineteenth century, courts and prisons have been attempting to discriminate between those who act through force of circumstance and those who are innately criminal and, therefore, who are considered as a threat to society (Cesare Lombroso, Crime: It's Causes and Remedies, p.365, 1918). To enable this distinction, predictions of any future threat became an important factor within the criminal justice structure. This legacy persists today, with the prediction of future threat determining the use of the death penalty and the sentencing of sexually violent offenders (Donna Coker, Article, 2003)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Alexander Scherr, Daubert & Danger: The "Fit" of Expert Predictions in Civil Commitments, 55 HASTINGS L.J. 1, 2-3 (2003)
• Caroline M. Mee & Harold V. Hall, Risky Business: Assessing Danger in Hawai'i, 24 U. HAW. L. REV. 63, 63 (2001)
• Cesare Lombroso, Crime: Its Causes and Remedies, p.365, (Henry P. Horton trans., 1918).
• Donna Coker, Foreword: Addressing the Real World of Racial Injustice in the Criminal Justice System, 93 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 827, 876 (2003).
• Erica Beecher-Monas - author, Edgar Garcia-Rill - author. Genetic Predictions of Future Dangerousness: Is There a Blueprint for Violence?. Contributors: Journal Title: Law and Contemporary Problems. Volume: 69. Issue: 1-2. Publication Year: 2006. Page Number: 301+. COPYRIGHT 2006 Duke University, School of Law; COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale Group.

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