Abandon Twin Research? Embrace Epigenetic Research? Premature Advice for Criminologists
Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: In their original article, Burt and Simons (2014) argued that heritability studies should be abandoned because twin and adoption research is a fatally flawed paradigm. They pointed optimistically to epigenetics research as the way forward. In our view, both rec-ommendations are hasty. This commentary will put forward two contrarian opinions. First, twin and adoption studies still have a lot to offer criminologists who seek the social causes of crime. Second, epigenetics research has very little to offer yet for criminologists who seek the social causes of crime. WHAT CAN TWIN AND ADOPTION RESEARCH OFFER CRIMINOLOGISTS? Twin and adoption studies are informative about environmental crime causation. In 2005, Terrie E. Moffitt reviewed the contribution of twin and adoption research to the study of antisocial behavior in a paper titled, “The New Look of Behavioral Genetics,” which subsequently became the basis of a lecture for the Stockholm Criminology Prize (Moffitt, 2005a; see also Moffitt, 2005b). The message was that the most remarkable con-tribution of behavioral genetic studies to science is the robust and compelling evidence
Source: Criminology
Authors: TERRIE E. MOFFITT, AMBER BECKLEY
Institutions: Duke University, King's College London, Stockholm University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1570200279