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How Does Genetics Affect Criminal Behaviour

764 Words4 Pages

In 2007, an Italian Court reduced a murderer’s sentence by one year because he possessed five genes that correlated with violent behaviour. Abdelmalek Bayout murdered Walter Perez in a bar brawl when Perez poked fun at Bayout for his eye makeup (kohl). He pleaded guilty to the court but his lawyer convinced the court to reduce a year from his sentence since he had five genes that were linked to violent behaviour.
This led to an uproar and frenzy in both the media and the scientific society--could criminal behaviour be genetic and actually be used a defence?
Ever since the role of genetics in crime was accepted (Joseph,2001), several questions have been raised regarding the validity of this theory and whether a person can really be excused from committing a crime, no matter how heinous it is, just because (s)he possesses a gene that causes him (or her) to go down the road of crime? And can the crime in this world actually be curbed by curbing the reproductive abilities of those possessing the “criminal gene”? …show more content…

CHAPTER 1

The Definition Of Criminal Behaviour
To fully comprehend the effect of genes on criminal behaviour, we first need to understand what exactly “Criminal behaviour” is. The social definition of crime is that it is “behaviour or an activity that offends the social code of a particular community”. Mower (1959) has defined it as "an anti-social act".
In general, criminal behaviour refers to “conduct of an offender that leads to (and including the commission of) an unlawful

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