Nature Vs. Nurture

Paper Summary:

The paper relates that both nature and nurture contribute, albeit unequally, to individuals that indulge in sociopathic, criminal and antisocial behavior. The paper explores the research that shows how an individual can have a genetic predisposition to crime, where the combination of gene products and biological processes result in a lack of inhibition and results in impulsive and aggressive behavior. The paper then shows how an individual who is brought up in an environment where the opportunities are lacking will also exhibit antisocial behavior and criminal tendencies.

From the Paper:

"One of the major conundrums that societies have to face is to address the following issue: in the development of children and juveniles into productive members of society, which plays a more important role: nature or nurture? This debate will perhaps, never end. In the early part of the twentieth century, nature was supposed to win out. The execrable notion of eugenics, where criminals, homosexuals and some of society's misfits were sterilized so that they would not pollute the gene pool was popular. Some prominent people of the time subscribed to this idea and it was practiced in Europe for a while. After the 1950s, a new ideation came about: that children, at birth, were a blank slate or tabula rasa. (Pinker, 2002) This meant that children could be nurtured depending on their environments. One of the extreme cases of nurture over nature was when boys were raised as girls and vice-versa, with deleterious effects. This is because researchers realized that an instinctual component exists, which causes boys to be boys and they could not be raised otherwise."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brunner, H. G., et al. "Abnormal Behavior Associated with a Point Mutation in the Structural Gene for Monoamine Oxidase A." Science 262.5133 (1993): 578-80.
• Holmes, S. E., J. R. Slaughter, and J. Kashani. "Risk Factors in Childhood That Lead to the Development of Conduct Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder." Child Psychiatry and Human Development 31 (2001): 183-93.
• Joseph, J. "Is Crime in the Genes? A Critical Review of Twin and Adoption Studies of Criminality and Antisocial Behavior." The Journal of Mind and Behavior 22 (2001): 179-218.
• Morley, K., and W. Hall. "Is There a Genetic Susceptibility to Engage in Criminal Acts?" Australian Institute of Criminology: Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice 263 (2003): 1-6.
• Pinker, Steven. The Blank Slate : The Modern Denial of Human Nature. New York: Viking, 2002.

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