Genes and Responsibility
After reading about the Warrior Gene and watching the documentary in class, I became interested in the science behind it, and I looked it up. Turns out, there seem to be a lot of personality trait genes that have all attracted media attention, like the "God Gene", the "gay gene", the "liberal gene", etc. But this one has probably had the most impact on law, as people argue that it makes violence or crime inevitable, given that there is childhood abuse to bring forth that faulty genetics.
One example I thought was interesting was when men with an extra Y chromosome, of the XYY variety, were diagnosed as violent by some study. This supposed genetic connection erupted all over reliable media. But what happened was that the study all the excitement was based on had been of men in a mental hospital, who were obviously going to be more violent. Once the gene was studied outside of that population, there was no statistical difference. I wonder if the Warrior Gene has a similar lack of basis, and if it has been abused to not enact justice.
Another thing that makes me question a little is this statistic about the Warrior Gene, MAOA: "MAOA-L was less common among Caucasians (34 percent) and Hispanics (29 percent) but even more common among Africans (59 percent) and Chinese (77 percent)." If this were the case, wouldn't that tendency toward violence have been reflected in the general population by now?
What I also find a little worrying is that instead of focusing on rehabilitation, overcoming the warrior gene, and whatnot, people instead use it as an excuse. So far I have been unable to find evidence that people with this gene are being helped in any way. Perhaps we should focus more on preventing child abuse and not so much on lessening the sentences of criminals.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/code-rage-the-warrior-gene-makes-me-mad-whether-i-have-it-or-not/
https://www.newstatesman.com/2016/09/why-we-can-t-blame-warrior-genes-violent-crime
One example I thought was interesting was when men with an extra Y chromosome, of the XYY variety, were diagnosed as violent by some study. This supposed genetic connection erupted all over reliable media. But what happened was that the study all the excitement was based on had been of men in a mental hospital, who were obviously going to be more violent. Once the gene was studied outside of that population, there was no statistical difference. I wonder if the Warrior Gene has a similar lack of basis, and if it has been abused to not enact justice.
Another thing that makes me question a little is this statistic about the Warrior Gene, MAOA: "MAOA-L was less common among Caucasians (34 percent) and Hispanics (29 percent) but even more common among Africans (59 percent) and Chinese (77 percent)." If this were the case, wouldn't that tendency toward violence have been reflected in the general population by now?
What I also find a little worrying is that instead of focusing on rehabilitation, overcoming the warrior gene, and whatnot, people instead use it as an excuse. So far I have been unable to find evidence that people with this gene are being helped in any way. Perhaps we should focus more on preventing child abuse and not so much on lessening the sentences of criminals.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/code-rage-the-warrior-gene-makes-me-mad-whether-i-have-it-or-not/
https://www.newstatesman.com/2016/09/why-we-can-t-blame-warrior-genes-violent-crime
I hadn't thought of looking more into the scientific basis of these genes and this was really interesting to learn about. You mentioned int he beginning the "god gene" and I was curious what that even was so I looked more into it and discovered that it is actually an idea that proposes that human spirituality is influenced by genetics and that there is a specific gene, VMAT2, that predisposes humans towards spiritual or mystic experiences. I think it's a really interesting idea that a lot of the ways humans act are controlled by genetics but I'm not so sure how much I believe in it.
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