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Intersection of Genes and Neuropsychological Deficits in the Prediction of Adolescent Delinquency and Low Self-Control

NCJ Number
229445
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2010 Pages: 22-42
Author(s)
Kevin M. Beaver; Matt DeLisi; Michael G. Vaughn; John P. Wright
Date Published
February 2010
Length
21 pages
Annotation
Gottfredson and Hirschi,s A General Theory of Crime, Moffitt,s developmental taxonomy theory, and Caspi et al.'s Gene x Environment study are three of the most influential pieces of contemporary criminological scholarship, but even so, there has been little attempt to integrate and empirically assess these three perspectives simultaneously; this article addresses this gap in the literature by analyzing phenotypic and genotypic data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health).
Abstract
The results revealed that all three perspectives have considerable empirical support, where neuropsychological deficits interact with the MAOA genotype to predict adolescent delinquency and levels of self-control for White males. The theoretical implications of the findings are noted. (Published Abstract)