February 2011
From the desk of Dr Sam Shohet
BDS MGDS LiAc MBAcC ICAK
Is Criminality Hard-Wired in our Genes?
The Present Situation
We hardly need reminding of the law and order problems facing us on a daily if not an hourly basis: stabbings, gun crime, gangs, truancy, classroom unrest, attacks on the person, robberies, general violence ….. All this with a background of police under pressure of reduced numbers and revenue, courts with horrendous backlogs, prisons overflowing, teachers under constant threat from pupils, social services close to meltdown ….
The Way Forward
Simply throwing money at this serious problem is not going to tackle it and can only make it worse since this money will have to be taken away from other areas with their own specific problems. At a time when we are all looking to make sacrifices we cannot afford to make expensive guesses as we have done in the past, so the only solution is to look at the very basis of behaviour in general with a special attention to anti-social behaviour, or crime.
Do we Catch it or Inherit it?
Let’s face it anti-social behaviour is not the result of a germ that we catch on a crowded bus, neither is it a sudden transformation that takes place overnight in our brain after watching an episode of Eastenders on TV. It must therefore be a response of our genes (Nature) to continued exposure to a trigger or triggers (Nurture).
Nature or Nurture
Behaviourists and psychologists have debated the influence of nature or nurture on human behaviour for decades with the latter perhaps just slightly edging it in recent years. However, in a ground-breaking revelation by an eminent researcher at McGill University Medical School, it was demonstrated that although nurture – environment, diet, lifestyle etc., which we call epigenes – play a big role in influencing the outcome, it transpires that it is the genes themselves that actually dictate whether we are basically capable of that behaviour in the first place.
This revelation ladies and gentlemen is PROFOUND!
What does all this mean?
We know that genetic expression is dependent on influential factors outside of our genes. Factors such as our environment (even in the womb!), where we live, how we live, our parents, our upbringing, our home life, our education, stress and so on. But now it appears that the tendency to certain behaviour, say aggression, is already present in our genetic make-up passed down through our ancestors – decades and centuries of wars leave not a single one of us emotionally unscathed. Nurture serves to either switch these genes on enabling them to express themselves: aggression, or off: no aggression – genes can either be turned on or off, there is no intermediate state.
The Ramifications
If this is true, and there is no reason to doubt it, it follows that we can not only predict crime and put the means in place to prevent it, we should also be able to identify the triggers that turn the responsible genes on in offenders and then help turn them off and, in so doing, change the outcome, aggressive behaviour for example.
Crime and Punishment
In out present criminal justice system, once society has taken out its revenge on the perpetrator of a crime, he or she is released back into the very same environment which led to the crime in the first place, not to mention of course the environment where the sentence had been carried out: remand, prison etc., which can only serve to perpetuate the problem. It should therefore come as no surprise that the great majority of criminals will reoffend.
The Future
Armed with this knowledge we should surely be better placed to identify those individuals or groups most likely to commit crimes either from a family history (domestic violence, lack of parental control, care homes, social circumstances) or older siblings and close relatives and friends, and offer remedial intervention to help silence the responsible genes early.
Whereas it is true that the best results will be seen in the younger individuals, it does not mean that the older group will not benefit from these measures; it simply means that we would need to work on them slightly longer. Perhaps a very good time to implement these measures also would be while offenders are incarcerated and certainly before they are released into the community and of course for as long as it is deemed necessary afterwards.
Influencing Gene Expression Towards a Positive Outcome
But perhaps most important of all is to recognise that the way genes express themselves is through enzymes which themselves are controlled by diet, lifestyle and environment: the very tenets which influence life itself and not just behaviour. And guess what? They are under our direct control!
Cost and Benefits
This is not about money even if it just so happens that the cost is negligible if there is any, yet the benefits to society are immeasurable, after all, how much is a decent, law-abiding, integral part of society worth?
Warm regards
Sam Shohet
For more information:
01483 522133
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