Populations At Risk In America by George J Demko Michael C. Jackson

Author:George J Demko, Michael C. Jackson [George J Demko, Michael C. Jackson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Sociology
ISBN: 9781000307733
Google: TK2bDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-06-04T03:47:37+00:00

6

Deviance and Human Nature

James Q. Wilson

The most controversial theory of crime and deviance is that differences among individuals may have some genetic basis. By a “genetic basis of deviance,’ I mean that the probability that a given individual who persistently breaks the ordinary criminal law will be influenced to a significant degree by dispositions that have been inherited. I wish to defend that theory, all the while acknowledging that it is not the whole story, not simply to convince you to believe it, but to persuade you to that there is nothing perverse, reactionary, or fatalistic about accepting the fact that most important forms of human behavior, including deviant forms, are influenced by our biological makeup and our evolutionary past. It is important that you be persuaded of this because it is impossible to carry on an intelligent discussion of crime prevention if for political or ideological reasons we rule out of consideration an entire set of possible causes.

Before proceeding, let me call your attention to certain key words or phrases in the proposition I have asserted. I am referring to people who “persistently” break the law by frequently stealing, fighting, or driving while drunk. Many of us will do these things once or twice; we cannot be said to have a disposition to do so unless we often act this way. The laws they break are the “ordinary criminal laws.” By that I mean the rules, some variant of which exists in virtually every society, against theft, vandalism, and disorderly conduct. I omit rules defining what we call white-collar or political crimes, not because they are unimportant, but because the relationship between committing them and individual dispositions is not well understood. When I say that genetic factors “influence to a significant degree” the probability that someone will display a high degree of criminality, I do not mean that there is a “crime gene” or that genetic factors independently of all other considerations will determine people’s behavior; I mean only that if you hold constant all observable environmental factors acting on two groups of people, one composed of frequent offenders and the other not, the differences in the rates of misconduct across the two groups will not be reduced to zero.

Before I summarize the evidence supporting my proposition, let me remark on how odd it is that anyone should even have to prove it. In every known society, past and present, there have always been certain individuals who have had a much higher average rate of law-breaking than anybody else. It makes no difference whether the society is primitive or industrialized, prosperous or poor, liberal or conservative, enlightened or traditional; essentially the same difference appears. This group consists of young males. If culture and environment were the sole causes of criminality, it is astonishing that nowhere can one find a culture in which young girls or old men commit crimes at a higher average rate than young men.

This example, convincing to some, is troubling to others. It immediately calls forth the rejoinder that gender is a socially determined phenomenon.

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