TALLAHASSEE, Fla., May 20 (UPI) -- Genes trump environment as the main reason some adolescents are more likely than others to be victimized by crime, a U.S. researcher suggests.
Criminologist Kevin M. Beaver of The Florida State University analyzed a sample of identical and same-sex fraternal twins drawn from a large, nationally representative sample of male and female adolescents interviewed in 1994 and 1995 for the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
"We know that genetically influenced traits such as low self control affect delinquent behavior, and delinquents, particularly violent ones, tend to associate with anti-social peers, I had reasons to suspect that genetic factors could influence the odds of someone becoming a victim of crime, and these formed the basis of our study," Beaver says in a statement.
Beaver says that genetic factors explained a surprisingly significant 40 percent to 45 percent of the variance in adolescent victimization among the twins, while non-shared environments -- those environments that are not the same between siblings -- explained the remaining variance.
The study, scheduled to be published in the journal Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, found that among adolescents who were victimized repeatedly, the effect of genetic factors accounted for 64 percent of the variance.
"It stands to reason that, if genetics are part of the reason why some young people are victimized in the first place, and genetics don't change, there's a good chance these individuals will experience repeat victimization," Beaver says.
