Heritability of antisocial behaviour

This chapter reviews important strands of research on the heritability of antisocial behavior and crime, including both quantitative genetic studies using twin or adoption designs as well as molecular genetic approaches. Study designs are introduced and findings discussed. Contemporary avenues including gene-environment interplay and developmental models are presented. Overall it is concluded that a significant amount of variance in antisocial behavior and crime is attributable to genetic factors but conclusive knowledge on involvement of specific genes still absent. We conclude with a discussion of usage of genetic information in the criminal justice system and note future tasks for the field of bio-criminology