NCJ Number
72170
Journal
QUADERNI DI CRIMINOLOGIA CLINICA Volume: 13 Issue: 2 Dated: (April/June 1971) Pages: 141-158
Date Published
1971
Length
18 pages
Annotation
A 1971 Italian telecast presented a discussion of the revolutionary criminological theory of linkages between criminal aggression and genetic aberrations (e.g., the XYY karyotype) in male offenders.
Abstract
A television panel consisting of a criminologist, a judge, a lawyer, and a moral philosopher addressed aspects (relevant to their expertise area) of the theory that some genetic aberrations (e.g., the XYY syndrome) to commit irrationally violent and often unmotivated crimes. The criminologist and the lawyer, based on the intensive research conducted in such countries as Australia, France, and the U.S. (rather than on the fledgling research in Italy), accepted the possibility that some individuall may be born with criminal tendencies, due to genetic anomalies, which make them easier prey to environmental criminogenic factors than individuals with different genetic and physical traits. The lawyer also suggested that Italian courts accept the XYY as an extenuating circumstance for defendants accused of violent crimes, although he stopped short of advocating insanity defense pleas on that basis. The judge rejected the validity of the genetic crime theory. He argued that less than 2% XYY carriers had so far been identified among the inmates of Italian prisons and hospitals for the criminally insane. Futhermore, while the judge believed that a defendant is either sane and therefore competent to stand trial, or insane, and therefore incompetent, no links between insanity and the XYY syndrome had been made, so that the question was irrelevant from a judicial viewpoint. The moral philosopher rejected the genetic determinist theory as well as the sociological and psychological theories of crime, affirming his belief in the metaphysical and existential dimensions of the mystery of crime. All panelists did, however, agree that further research into genetic influences on crime should be conducted. The moderator concluded by answering the simplistic question on whether earlier theories of the born criminal should be revived in the negative. Italian, French, English, Spanish, and German abstracts are provided. This telecast transcript contains no footnotes or references. --in Italian.