The Intersection of Genes and Neuropsychological Deficits in the Prediction of Adolescent Delinquency and Low Self-Control

Abstract

Gottfredson and Hirschi’s A General Theory of Crime, Moffitt’s developmental taxonomy theory, and Caspi et al.’s Gene × Environment study are three of the most influential pieces of contemporary criminological scholarship. Even so, there has been little attempt to integrate and empirically assess these three perspectives simultaneously. This article addresses this gap in the literature by analyzing phenotypic and genotypic data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The results revealed that all three perspectives have considerable empirical support, where neuropsychological deficits interact with the MAOA genotype to predict adolescent delinquency and levels of self-control for White males. The theoretical implications of the findings are noted.