Interplay of Social Environment and the Whole Genome on Delinquency and Violence

• In Event: Contemporary Issues in Biosocial Criminology

Abstract

Complex human traits are likely to be affected by many environmental and genetic factors, and the interactions among them. However, previous studies have typically focused on one or only a small number of genetic variants at a time. To provide a broader view of gene-environment interaction (GxE), this study examines the collective contribution of genetic variants across the whole human genome (around 630,000 genetic variants) to youth delinquency and violence using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (AddHealth). There is evidence that adverse social conditions are associated with greater genomic contribution and favorable social conditions are associated with smaller genomic contribution. An important implication of these findings is that the expression of many delinquency/violence-related genes depends on the social environment: gene expression is likely to be amplified in adverse social environments, but tends to be suppressed in favorable social environments. This study not only deepens our understanding of how the social environment shapes individual behavior, but also provides important conceptual and methodological insights to future GxE research on complex human traits.

Author

• Hexuan Liu, University of Cincinnati