{"id":254,"date":"2013-01-12T17:57:22","date_gmt":"2013-01-12T17:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genotopia.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=254"},"modified":"2013-07-09T19:57:32","modified_gmt":"2013-07-09T19:57:32","slug":"risks-of-a-genetic-approach-to-crime-prevention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/254\/risks-of-a-genetic-approach-to-crime-prevention\/","title":{"rendered":"Risks of a genetic approach to crime prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a piece in the Hartford Courant<\/a>‘s special set of editorials on the Sandy Hook tragedy<\/a>. The headline-writer missed the point–I am not asking whether genetics could help in understanding and preventing such violence. Of course it can yield at least a partial explanation. My concern is the risk of any prevention program grounded in that genetic understanding. That way leads us toward pre-emptive medication of a class of “future criminals”–a frightening prospect indeed.<\/p>\n

\"Adam
Adam Lanza [photo from The Blaze]<\/figcaption><\/figure>Here’s the piece<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The piece was written two weeks ago. Yesterday, Wayne Carver, the Connecticut Medical Examiner who ordered the genetic analysis, called it a “fishing expedition<\/a>.” He continued, “but that doesn’t mean you don’t look.” Why doesn’t it? Only because you don’t see the risks as being greater than the benefits, however tiny they may be. My argument is that the risks are greater than we realize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a piece in the Hartford Courant‘s special set of editorials on the Sandy Hook tragedy. The headline-writer missed the point–I am not asking whether genetics could help in understanding and preventing such violence. Of course it can yield at least a partial explanation. My concern is the risk of any prevention program grounded … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[315,151,38,223],"class_list":["post-254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-calling-bullshit","tag-crime","tag-genetic-determinism","tag-sandy-hook"],"yoast_head":"\nRisks of a genetic approach to crime prevention - Genotopia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/254\/risks-of-a-genetic-approach-to-crime-prevention\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Risks of a genetic approach to crime prevention\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have a piece in the Hartford Courant‘s special set of editorials on the Sandy Hook tragedy. 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From 1997 to 2002, he was on the history faculty at The George Washington University, where he also served as Deputy Director of the Center for History of Recent Science. The Center\u2019s director and founder was Horace Freeland Judson (The Eighth Day of Creation), who, along with John McPhee and Monty Python, Comfort considers among his biggest writing influences. Comfort\u2019s books include The Science of Human Perfection: How Genes Became the Heart of American Medicine (Yale, 2012), The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock\u2019s Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control (Harvard, 2001), and the edited volume, The Panda\u2019s Black Box: Opening Up the Intelligent Design Debate (Johns Hopkins, 2007). In addition to scholarly articles, he has written for Natural History, the New York Times Book Review, National Public Radio, Nature, Science, New Scientist, The Believer, and other publications. 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