Henry was headed for serious trouble. The 15-year-old provoked an endless series of fights at school and frequently bullied girls. Teachers regularly suspended him for his classroom disruptions. Older students taunted Henry in the hallways by calling him a sexual pervert or jeered him for having been held back in kindergarten. At home, his father browbeat and denigrated the boy, while his mother cried and muttered about how sick Henry had become.
[..]
Like all children, chronic troublemakers and hell-raisers respond to a shifting mix of social and biological influences as they grow. Some developmental roads arc relentlessly toward brutality and tragedy. Others, like Henry’s, plunge into a dark place before heading into the light of adjustment.
New evidence indicates that a gene variant inherited by some people influences brain development in ways that foster impulsive violence, but only in combination with environmental hardships. […] “Violence is such a complicated issue,” Twemlow says. “There’s always a set of preconditions to violent behavior and never just one cause.”
In Meyer-Lindenberg’s study, the 57 men and women with the MAOA-light gene displayed a set of neural characteristics that appear to weaken a person’s ability to hold emotions and aggressive urges in check. Brain scans of these participants revealed unusually small inner-brain structures involved in emotion regulation. This effect was stronger in the 27 men than in the 30 women.
The same men and women displayed intense activity in two emotion-related structures, the amygdala and the hippocampus, when they looked at emotional facial expressions and recalled emotional experiences; they had sparse activity in impulse-control parts of the frontal brain during a computer task that required self-control.
In contrast, volunteers with the strong-MAOA gene displayed less intense responses to emotional input and more activity related to impulse control. These brain responses indicate greater control of emotions and impulses.
It’s not possible to have a gentic predisposition towards violence, if THAT was true then it MIGHT be possible that the races could have different average predispositions. Only a racist would think like that! Wasn’t six million enough? God created us all equally (unless your one of the chosen people).
“God created us all equally (unless your one of the chosen people).” What? Once again religion clouds the mind of science. Sorry all races DO have different bone structures, muscular structures, blood types, etc. Last time I checked a white male at any age still can’t contract Sickle Cell Anemia. Only a racist would use those dispositions as a form of prejudice. If they did research and found out that one race was more violent than the other than the more power to them. Only a racist would try to use that against the other race. Get it? Otherwise you’re saying that it is racist to accept the fact that black people are darker skinned than white people. To accept that there may be differences is racism? Maybe you should read on Sunday instead of going to church…
I don’t get it. Based on your logic, the only people listening to the facts are the evil racist people.
violence exists in all races. It is inherited as either a single predisposing gene, or a combination of a few genes. I f those convicted by duly constituted courts of justice for violent crimes, are sterilised as a routine measure, violence may come down in a few centuries. It is a harmless method which is not now-a-days looked upon as human rights violation.
B.N. Chennai
Violence is inherited 1. either as a single responsible gene ( not yet identified), or 2. by a combination of genes (not ye tidentfied) or 3. by predisposing genes which in supporting environments give a pheno type of violence. While these causes have still to be confirmed. we can adopt a simple preventive. Sterilise all those convicted by a duly constituted court of justice for violent crimes as a routine easure. It is harmless. beneficial in the long run.
B.N.hennai
I hav typed comment twice. what happened to the?
while the identification of genes responsible for violence is awaited, there is nodoubt that it is inherited, at least the propensity is. Therefore, sterilisation of individuals convicted by duly authorised courts of justice may be sterilised as a routine. That will in the long run reduce violence.
B. Narasimham
while we await acceptance of the fact of inheritance of violence, we may introduce sterilisation persons convicted for violent crimes.
To Comment# 8
This is the most brain dead argument ever.