Ethical and Policy Issues in Genetic Prediction of Violence: Implications for Clinicians

Abstract

This paper reviews the ethical and policy issues raised by current biomedical research into violent behavior. Increasing awareness of the environmental mediation of genetic influence may not reduce the risks of social control and stigmatization. The review concludes that (1) public anxiety about mass killings and mental illness will increase pressure to detect individual biological features that predispose to crime. The pressure to find such individual differences may be even greater than it was in the 1990s, when more pervasive violent crime was easier to attribute to “shared environment.” Further, it concludes (2) that the recognition of early environmental factors in predispositions to violent crime may increase pressures on parents to ensure the good behavior of their children