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

Gottfredson and Hirschi’s A General Theory of Crime, Moffitt’s developmental taxonomy theory, and Caspi et al.’s Gene × Environment study are three of the most influential pieces of contemporary criminological scholarship. 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). 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.

[1]  N. Morris,et al.  Crime and justice : an annual review of research , 1980 .

[2]  Velmer S. Burton,et al.  THE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF SELF-CONTROL: TESTING THE GENERAL THEORY OF CRIME* , 1997 .

[3]  Benjamin B. Lahey,et al.  Causes of conduct disorder and juvenile delinquency , 2003 .

[4]  L. Ellis.  Monoamine Oxidase and Criminality: Identifying an Apparent Biological Marker for Antisocial Behavior , 1991 .

[5]  Judith A. Stein,et al.  RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF A SELFCONTROL MEASURE: REJOINDER , 1998 .

[6]  R. Dean,et al.  Construct validity of the PPVT with neuropsychological, intellectual, and achievement measures. , 1988, Journal of clinical psychology.

[7]  E. Cohn.  Changes in Scholarly Influence in Major American Criminology and Criminal Justice Journals Between 1986 and 2005 , 2011 .

[8]  M. Polakowski,et al.  Linking self- and social control with deviance: Illuminating the structure underlying a general theory of crime and its relation to deviant activity , 1994 .

[9]  B. Nurcombe,et al.  Genes and behavior: Nature-nurture interplay explained , 2007 .

[10]  Scott Menard,et al.  Childhood Maltreatment, Subsequent Antisocial Behavior, and the Role of Monoamine Oxidase A Genotype , 2006, Biological Psychiatry.

[11]  Kevin M. Beaver,et al.  The effect of school classroom characteristics on low self-control: A multilevel analysis , 2008 .

[12]  T. Moffitt.  The Cambridge Handbook of Violent Behavior and Aggression: A Review of Research on the Taxonomy of Life-Course Persistent Versus Adolescence-Limited Antisocial Behavior , 2007 .

[13]  J. Hewitt,et al.  Interaction between MAO-A genotype and maltreatment in the risk for conduct disorder: failure to confirm in adolescent patients , 2006 .

[14]  T. Moffitt.  Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: a developmental taxonomy. , 1993, Psychological review.

[15]  John J. Gibbs,et al.  Parental Management and Self-Control: An Empirical Test of Gottfredson and Hirschi's General Theory , 1998 .

[16]  J. Hewitt,et al.  Monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) and antisocial behaviors in the presence of childhood and adolescent maltreatment , 2005, American journal of medical genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric genetics : the official publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics.

[17]  Alfonso Troisi,et al.  Early Trauma and Increased Risk for Physical Aggression during Adulthood: The Moderating Role of MAOA Genotype , 2007, PloS one.

[18]  Judith A. Stein,et al.  Reliability and Validity of a Self-Control Measure , 1998 .

[19]  Ronald L. Simons,et al.  A LONGITUDINAL TEST OF THE EFFECTS OF PARENTING AND THE STABILITY OF SELF-CONTROL: NEGATIVE EVIDENCE FOR THE GENERAL THEORY OF CRIME* , 2006 .

[20]  Kevin M. Beaver.  NONSHARED ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON ADOLESCENT DELINQUENT INVOLVEMENT AND ADULT CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR , 2008 .

[21]  Jonathan M. Campbell,et al.  Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test , 2010 .

[22]  Giuseppe Blasi,et al.  Neural mechanisms of genetic risk for impulsivity and violence in humans. , 2006, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[23]  Andy Hochstetler,et al.  Self-control behind bars: A validation study of the Grasmick et al. scale , 2003 .

[24]  Alex R. Piquero,et al.  The school context as a source of self-control , 2005 .

[25]  T. Moffitt.  Life-course-persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial behavior: A 10-year research review and a research agenda. , 2003 .

[26]  John Paul Wright,et al.  DO PARENTS MATTER IN CREATING SELF-CONTROL IN THEIR CHILDREN? A GENETICALLY INFORMED TEST OF GOTTFREDSON AND HIRSCHI'S THEORY OF LOW SELF-CONTROL* , 2005 .

[27]  Velmer S. Burton,et al.  Gender, Self-Control, and Crime , 1998 .

[28]  Travis C. Pratt,et al.  Parental management, ADHD, and delinquent involvement: Reassessing Gottfredson and Hirschi's general theory , 2003 .

[29]  Phil A. Silva,et al.  NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS PREDICTING PERSISTENT MALE DELINQUENCY , 1994 .

[30]  John Paul Wright,et al.  A gene × gene interaction between DRD2 and DRD4 is associated with conduct disorder and antisocial behavior in males , 2007, Behavioral and Brain Functions.

[31]  A. Caspi,et al.  Role of Genotype in the Cycle of Violence in Maltreated Children , 2002, Science.

[32]  J. E. Stone,et al.  Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT–R) , 1989, Diagnostique.

[33]  A. Caspi,et al.  MAOA, maltreatment, and gene–environment interaction predicting children's mental health: new evidence and a meta-analysis , 2006, Molecular Psychiatry.

[34]  T. Moffitt,et al.  Explaining the relation between IQ and delinquency: class, race, test motivation, school failure, or self-control? , 1993, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[35]  Bernd Marcus,et al.  Self-Control in the General Theory of Crime: , 2004 .

[36]  E. Cohn,et al.  Changes in Scholarly Influence in Major American Criminology and Criminal Justice Journals between 1986 and 2000 , 2007 .

[37]  L. Eaves,et al.  Childhood adversity, monoamine oxidase a genotype, and risk for conduct disorder. , 2004, Archives of general psychiatry.

[38]  Marianne Junger,et al.  An Empirical Test of a General Theory of Crime: A Four-Nation Comparative Study of Self-Control and the Prediction of Deviance , 2001 .

[39]  Harold G. Grasmick,et al.  Testing the Core Empirical Implications of Gottfredson and Hirschi's General Theory of Crime , 1993 .

[40]  T. Moffitt.  The Neuropsychology of Juvenile Delinquency: A Critical Review , 1990, Crime and Justice.

[41]  J. Hewitt,et al.  Interaction between MAO-A genotype and maltreatment in the risk for conduct disorder: failure to confirm in adolescent patients. , 2006, The American journal of psychiatry.

[42]  A. Piquero.  Testing moffitt's neuropsychological variation hypothesis for the prediction of life-course persistent offending , 2001 .

[43]  T. Pratt,et al.  THE EMPIRICAL STATUS OF GOTTFREDSON AND HIRSCHI'S GENERAL THEORY OF CRIME: A META‐ANALYSIS , 2000 .

[44]  M. DeLisi,et al.  Career Criminals in Society , 2005 .

[45]  Bernd Marcus,et al.  An Empirical Examination of the Construct Validity of Two Alternative Self-Control Measures , 2003 .

[46]  Colin Bateman,et al.  Cycle of Violence , 1995 .

[47]  Kevin M. Beaver,et al.  A biosocial explanation of delinquency abstention. , 2008, Criminal behaviour and mental health : CBMH.

[48]  C. Coulton,et al.  Interaction Effects in Multiple Regression , 1993 .

[49]  John Paul Wright,et al.  Self-Control as an Executive Function , 2007 .

[50]  T. Moffitt,et al.  The new look of behavioral genetics in developmental psychopathology: gene-environment interplay in antisocial behaviors. , 2005, Psychological bulletin.

[51]  Alex R. Piquero,et al.  Parental Socialization and Community Context: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Structural Sources of Low Self-Control , 2004 .

[52]  Lee Ellis,et al.  A Theory Explaining Biological Correlates of Criminality , 2005 .

[53]  Kevin M. Beaver,et al.  Biosocial Development and Delinquent Involvement , 2005 .

[54]  C. Golden,et al.  Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised and Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery for Children: Intercorrelations for Normal Youngsters , 1983, Perceptual and motor skills.

[55]  John Paul Wright,et al.  Evidence of Negligible Parenting Influences on Self‐Control, Delinquent Peers, and Delinquency in a Sample of Twins , 2008 .

[56]  G. Vaillant.  Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives: Delinquent Boys to Age 70 , 2005 .

[57]  John J. Gibbs,et al.  A Test of Gottfredson and Hirschi's General Theory Using Structural Equation Modeling , 2003 .

[58]  A. Piquero,et al.  PSYCHOLOGICAL, NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF SERIOUS ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN , 2005 .

[59]  John Paul Wright,et al.  Taking Stock: The Status of Criminological Theory-Advances in Criminological Theory , 2005 .

[60]  Judith A. Stein,et al.  SELF-CONTROL IN A CRIMINAL SAMPLE: AN EXAMINATION OF CONSTRUCT VALIDITY* , 1996 .

[61]  Christopher J. Sullivan,et al.  Parental Efficacy, Self-Control, and Delinquency: a Test of a General Theory of Crime on a Nationally Representative Sample of Youth , 2004, International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology.

[62]  Alex R. Piquero,et al.  The Influence of Parental Support Among Incarcerated Adolescent Offenders , 2007 .

[63]  M. DeLisi,et al.  It's all in the Record: Assessing Self-Control Theory with an Offender Sample , 2001 .

[64]  Linda M. Brzustowicz,et al.  MAOA and the “Cycle of Violence:” Childhood Abuse and Neglect, MAOA Genotype, and Risk for Violent and Antisocial Behavior , 2006, Biological Psychiatry.

[65]  Alex R. Piquero,et al.  THE RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF GRASMICK et al.'s SELF‐CONTROL SCALE: A COMMENT ON LONGSHORE et al.* , 1998 .

[66]  Judith A. Stein,et al.  Reliability and Validity of a Self-Control Measure: Rejoinder , 1998 .

[67]  A. Meyer-Lindenberg,et al.  Intermediate phenotypes and genetic mechanisms of psychiatric disorders , 2006, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[68]  Alex R. Piquero,et al.  Testing Moffitt's account of adolescence-limited delinquency , 2001 .

[69]  Robert A. Silverman,et al.  LOW SELF-CONTROL AND OPPORTUNITY: TESTING THE GENERAL THEORY OF CRIME AS AN EXPLANATION FOR GENDER DIFFERENCES IN DELINQUENCY* , 1999 .

[70]  Michael R. Gottfredson,et al.  A general theory of crime. , 1992 .