Genetic Basis for Crime: A New Look By PATRICIA COHEN Published: June 19, 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/arts/genetics-and-crime-at-institute-of-justice-conference.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&hpw=&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1308758092-IQNwF29ZiUhMIcb27VOplg RECOMMEND TWITTER COMMENTS (35) E-MAIL PRINT REPRINTS SHARE It was less than 20 years ago that the National Institutes of Health abruptly withdrew funds for a conference on genetics and crime after outraged complaints that the idea smacked of eugenics. The president of the Association of Black Psychologists at the time declared that such research was in itself “a blatant form of stereotyping and racism.” The tainted history of using biology to explain criminal behavior has pushed criminologists to reject or ignore genetics and concentrate on social causes: miserable poverty, corrosive addictions, guns. Now that the human genome has been sequenced, and scientists are studying the gen...
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The Chronicle Review Home Opinion & Ideas The Chronicle Review E-mail Print Comments (28) Share June 12, 2011 Rule Breaker When it comes to morality, the philosopher Patricia Churchland refuses to stand on principle Excerpt: Oxytocin's primary purpose appears to be in solidifying the bond between mother and infant, but Churchland argues—drawing on the work of biologists—that there are significant spillover effects: Bonds of empathy lubricated by oxytocin expand to include, first, more distant kin and then other members of one's in-group. (Another neurochemical, aregenine vasopressin, plays a related role, as do endogenous opiates, which reinforce the appeal of cooperation by making it feel good.) From there, culture and society begin to make their presence felt, shaping larger moral systems: tit-for-tat retaliation helps keep freeloaders and abusers of empathic understanding in line. Adults pass along the rules for acceptable beha...