Parental Educational Attainment Moderates the Association Between a Polygenic Score for Aggressive Behavior and Lifetime Incarceration Risk

• In Event: Sociogenomics: The Next Step in Biopsychosocial Research

Abstract

Incarceration is a highly disruptive event that is experienced by a non-trivial proportion of the population. Sociologists have identified social risk factors—such as low socioeconomic status—that affect the probability of experiencing incarceration over the life course. But scholars have recently called for a focus on the mechanisms that link social risk factors with genomic influences. By drawing on genome-wide data from the Health and Retirement Study, we investigate the impact of a genome-wide polygenic score for aggressive behavior on a measure of lifetime incarceration risk. We then test for a gene-environment interaction to see if the impact of the polygenic score is modified by childhood socio-economic status. Findings will be contextualized by considering avenues for future research, potential policy implications, and concerns over whether socio-genomic research can or should inform our understanding of outcomes like criminal behavior.

Authors

• Ryan Motz, University of Cincinnati

• J.C. Barnes, University of Cincinnati

• Hexuan Liu, University of Cincinnati