A protest on a college campus against sexual assault.
A recently published study in the International Journal of Epidemiology suggests that there could be a correlation between genetics and sex crimes.
Sexual crimes are a large problem in today's society effecting both men and women. One out of every four women will become a victim of sexual assault and one out of every ten men will become a victim.
The 37 year study, from 1973-2009, studying 21,566 men showed a link between the likelihood of a man to commit a sex crime and the past sex crime history in his family. A man whose brother or son has committed a sex crime is five times more likely to commit a similar offense. A man whose father has committed a sex crime is four times more likely. The team also analyzed similar conditions such as child molestation and rape and found similar results. The team analyzed the large quantity of data and determined that 40% of the risk of committing sex crimes is genetic while the other 60% is affected by what kind of environment the man was brought up in.
It is important to note that the researchers have not found the "rape gene". They do suggest, however, that there is a significant correlation between genetics and risk for committing a sex crime.
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/45366/20150410/new-study-sheds-light-on-link-between-sex-crimes-and-genetics.htm
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/04/05/ije.dyv029.full.pdf+html
This is an interesting point of view, though it would be interesting to study environmental influences in addition to genetics. The way these people are brought up and what their life at home is like may also influence whether or not a person will commit a sex crime.
ReplyDeleteI find it very interesting the different behaviors that researchers look for genetics links that contribute to. I feel like there needs to be more genetic or psychological data that actually supports whether not such a large part of this is genetic, because it still seems more based on familial relations outside of genetics. I think they also should do this study with women to determine whether or not this could be some sort of genetic linkage. Although woman aren't usually seen as sex offenders as much as men, it is still a thing that happens and I feel as though they should have done it with both men and women. It would feel more consistent to me.
ReplyDeleteI've learned that becoming a sex offender has to do with the environment one is brought up in, but never that it has to do with genetics as well. It makes sense that someone who is related to a person who has committed any kind of sex crime is more likely to commit the same or a similar crime. Very interesting and informative post.
ReplyDelete