SAFETYLIT WEEKLY UPDATE

We compile citations and summaries of about 400 new articles every week.
RSS Feed

HELP: Tutorials | FAQ
CONTACT US: Contact info

Search Results

Journal Article

Citation

Barnes JC, Liu H, Motz RT, Tanksley PT, Kail R, Beckley AL, Belsky DW, Domingue BW, Moffitt TE, Pratt TC, Wertz J. Aggress. Violent Behav. 2019; 49: e101307.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.avb.2019.07.002

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Incarceration is a disruptive event that is experienced by a considerable proportion of the United States population. Research has identified social factors that predict incarceration risk, but scholars have called for a focus on the ways that individual differences combine with social factors to affect incarceration risk. Our study is an initial attempt to heed this call using whole-genome data. We use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) (N = 6716) to construct a genome-wide measure of genetic propensity for aggressive behavior and use it to predict lifetime incarceration risk. We find that participants with a higher genetic propensity for aggression are more likely to experience incarceration, but the effect is stronger for males than females. Importantly, we identify a gene-environment interaction (G × E)--genetic propensity is reduced, substantively and statistically, to a non-significant predictor for males raised in homes where at least one parent graduated high school. We close by placing these findings in the broader context of concerns that have been raised about genetics research in criminology.


Language: en

Keywords

Gene-environment interaction (G × E); Genome-wide polygenic score (PGS); Lifetime incarceration; Parental educational attainment

NEW SEARCH


All SafetyLit records are available for automatic download to Zotero & Mendeley
Print