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Can Genetics Cause Crime?

Can Genetics Cause Crime?

Can Genetics Cause Crime?

Introduction to Criminal Justice System
Dr. Mike Carlie

    Are genetic factors more likely to make one person perform violent acts?
Many doctors and researchers in the field of genetics have searched for a answer
to this question.
During 1989-93 one such researcher named Dr. Sullivan found some
interesting points about genetics and crime.
    Sullivan while working for the Bush administration’s secretary of health
and human services during 1989-1993 was appalled by the epidemic of violent
crimes he saw taking place in American cities. According to Dr. Sullivan,
"more than 26,000 Americans were murdered,
        and six million violent crimes were committed
        with young men and minorities falling victim
most frequently". Sullivan also reported that about one in every 27
black men, compared to one in every 205 white men, died violently also 1 in 117
black women met a untimely end as compared to white women which only 1 in 496
were killed due to violent crimes. This is not surprising that young males
commit most of the serious crimes. According to an article in Scientific
American, only 12.5 percent of violent crime in the U.S. in 1992 was committed
by females. What is also surprising according to W.W. Gibbs the author of
"Seeking the Criminal Element," in Scientific American,(1995 March) pp 100-107,
is that a very small number of criminals are responsible for the majority of the
violent crime.
    Sullivan who is now the president of the Morehouse School of Medicine in
Atlanta wanted to try and address the violence as a public health issue. In an
interview after he left office in 1993, Dr. Sullivan explains that his rational
for this was that the higher increases in violent crimes and specifically
homicide in the young male population in large cities. Which was higher than
any other social group in America at this time.
    Dr. Sullivan then began to organize his department’s research resources
under the banner of the so called "Violence Initiative" as he put it. With the
predominant thought of looking at unemployment, poverty, the use of drugs and
any other factors that might help to contribute to the likelihood of causing
violence. Primarily Sullivans’ research was directed towards the psychological
and sociological point of view. Sullivan primarily working with the before
mentioned points and only worked lightly with the biological aspects, such as
race, gender, brain chemistry and geneti

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