APB Online BORN CRIMINALS? New Book Explores Genetics and Violence April 19, 1999 By Stephanie Kirch New York (APBNews.com) -- A new book exploring the connection between genetics and human aggression comes to the controversial conclusion that genes do play a role -- but not an exclusive one -- in the development of society's most violent criminal types. "Troubled parents inflict troubled homes as well as their DNA on their unsuspecting children," neurobiologist Debra Niehoff writes in The Biology of Violence: How Understanding the Brain, Behavior, and Environment Can Break the Vicious Circle of Aggression (The Free Press, $25). Mild as it is, even this acknowledgement that any aspect of criminal behavior could be passed on in genes from parent to offspring is a controversial one. Some U.S. scientists are so loath to consider that possibility they have boycotted major conferences where the issue was simply scheduled to be discussed by other scientists. "Few aspects of the behavioral biology of aggression make people more nervous than the suggestion that violent, antisocial, or criminal behavior might have roots in the genome," writes Niehoff, who received her Ph.D. from Johns-Hopkins University. "Yet, the opposing viewpoints -- the safe viewpoint -- that behavior and heredity are independent events can't be correct either. Behavior is not grafted onto the nervous system as a cultural afterthought. It begins and ends in a brain built according to recipes filed in the genome." Exploring a taboo issue Proceeding carefully, Niehoff explores this taboo issue from a responsible middle ground. She plods through decades of human and animal genetic research studies to establish what is actually known about the biological transfer of traits from parent to offspring. She also notes that stories in the popular press suggest that there may soon be genetically engineered "fixes" for any number of problems. "We as a society are entranced right now by molecular biology," she said in an interview with APBNews.com. "We've heard a lot of media talk about 'genes for this and genes for that.' But research does not support the finding that there is a single gene for violence. The idea that we'll be able to predict aggressive behavior from a gene screening at birth has no validity." But when leading-edge research does suggest a correlation between certain biological indicators and the most fearsome kinds of criminals, policy-makers should take serious note, Niehoff advises. For instance, she said, anatomical evidence is emerging that suggests how to recognize and treat predatory serial offenders, the group with the reputation of being most resistant to rehabilitation by traditional treatment models. Clinically, they are diagnosed as suffering from anti-social personality disorder. Stalking as foreplay "There are men," Niehoff writes, "for whom stalking and killing have taken the place of foreplay." Many predatory killers prefer to strangle their victims, duplicating the way stalkers most frequently kill their prey in the animal kingdom. She rejects the theory that the brains of such infamous predators as Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy or Jeffrey Dahmer were infected at birth by a twisted gene or "a bad seed." Instead, she argues, "crime is a developmental process beginning in the earliest days of life," often with a traumatic event that caused physical or emotional separation from the mother at infancy. Primate studies have demonstrated that infants separated at birth from their mothers become sluggish and aggressive in strange ways. Niehoff told APBNews.com that "if you look at a group of human babies, they'll all be different. One small group will be over-reactive, fidgeting and crying from every noise they hear. There will be a large group that are moderate in their response level...but at the other end there will be a group of babies that respond slowly, that tend to need to be jump-started. Five to 10 percent of those slow-reacting babies typically will develop into toddlers and preschoolers who are bold, fearless, and defiant." Such children seem to lack the antenna to read non-verbal cues from caregivers and others signaling them when a behavior is not appropriate, Niehoff said. "These young children demand a different kind of parenting," she continued. "They have a social learning deficit. What they need desperately is specific training in social skills and expert parenting." Emerging sex killers She also recommended a wider acknowledgment that the signs of certain kinds of emerging criminal personalities -- like serial sexual predators -- can be recognized early and should be systematically addressed by society. "The only solution to murderous sexual aggression -- like all other antisocial aggression -- is to prevent it by adopting a zero-tolerance policy on for game childhood sexual abuse and by learning to recognize enthusiasts and the the early warning signs," she writes. "Boys who are chance to play CEO loners with a precocious interest in sex, who set fires, torture animals, express little regard for ROCK & RUMBLE: Will other people, or are fascinated with violent sexual the killings never images in movies or magazines should set off alarm end? bells. The clock is ticking if we want to have any chance of catching them before they go over the edge." Stephanie Kirch is an APBNews.com correspondent living in Asheville, N.C. ([EMAIL PROTECTED]).
