Criminal behavior is taught and chosen to be acted upon by a person, not that that person was predisposed to become murderer or a thief because of a genetic pattern in their DNA. Thomas J. Bouchard, a teacher in the Dept. of Psych. At the University of Minnesota., states this idea through some very thought provoking rhetorical questions:.
What are the implications of truly believing that one's behaviors are due to uncontrollable genetic impulses? Caught philandering or stealing? Instead of saying "the devil made me do it" I guess you can now argue that "it runs in the family." But what happens when people are no longer held accountable for their actions? Is society even possible if its rules cannot be observed? This issue underlies not only philosophical debates over free will and determinism but also the current trend toward our becoming a no-fault no-risk culture (Did you get caught shooting at the President? Argue temporary insanity. For an inventory of some of the most frivolous lawsuits see the Stella Awards.) (1).
These rhetorical questions can also be worded around a little differently to discuss the topic of the "gay" gene. Now scientists are trying to tell us the reason why people are homosexual is that they are carriers of the gene and they were predisposed to become a homosexual. Where my argument with these studies comes in is that many people say they are homosexual but are not carriers of the "gay" gene, or some people might be exemplary, upstanding citizens who have never broken a law in their life but have the "criminal" gene and vice versa. It is of my belief that heredity is composed of strictly physical traits and can have an effect on your risks of getting certain diseases and your likeliness of becoming bald. Anything that has to do with the physical nature of our being is heredity, but some of our inherited traits can have an emotional impact on a person along the lines of how being overweight can make that person depressed or sad.