THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CRIME
Their research has shown that individuals in the life-course persistent
category are three times more likely to be convicted after the age of 26
than average, and five times more likely to be convicted after that age
for a violent crime. Longitudinal research conducted in London by
David Farrington has uncovered similar patterns. He began tracking 411
eight-year-old boys living in inner-city South London in 1961 and subse-
quently found that just seven percent of the sample were responsible
for half of all the convictions received by the entire group, with those
convicted at a younger age tending to have the most convictions and the
longest criminal careers.
Moffitt and Caspi also found that life-course persistent offenders
typically have an underactive version of the MAOA gene. This affects
the production of a protein that breaks down neurotransmitters in
the brain. Such individuals also tend to have a history of having been
abused or neglected in early childhood, and it’s this combination of
early trauma with their genetic vulnerability that seems to set them on a
path of criminality. Intriguing new research suggests, however, that these
same individuals may thrive in more supportive conditions – an idea
popularized in a 2009 article for The Atlantic by David Dobbs. Brain-
imaging research has further shown that they are easily emotionally
aroused, often seeing threats where none exist.
Findings like these have led to calls for early intervention programmes
to “nip criminality in the bud”. The idea is that by providing early
support to parents and their children, the toxic combination of early
trauma and genetic vulnerability can be avoided. A meta-analysis by
David Farrington of intervention studies, including tests of parenting
programmes, found that on average, offending rates were reduced by one
third. Some experts have even advocated intervening before children are
born. In the 1990s, David Olds at the University of Colorado carried out
research involving “at-risk” mothers receiving supportive nurse-visits
during pregnancy and for the first two years of their child’s life. He
found that by the time the children were aged fifteen, they’d clocked up
only half as many arrests as a control group and received one fifth as
many convictions.
These results sound promising, but such interventions aren’t without
their critics. Although the majority of adult offenders will have exhibited
conduct problems in childhood (i.e. extreme disobedience or antisocial
behaviour), it’s also true that most children with such problems won’t
end up as persistent offenders. Some have argued that targeting at-risk
parents and their children stigmatizes them, and is reminiscent of the
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