Forensic-Biological explanations- Genetic and Neural- A03
- Created by: MollyL20
- Created on: 28-09-21 09:26
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- Biological explanation- Evaluation
- Problems with twin studies
- 1- Early twin studies were poorly controlled and judgements related to zygosity were based on appearance rather than DNA testing. Therefore, they may lack validity
- 2- Furthermore, twin studies typically involve small sample sizes, and twins are an unusual sample in themselves and may not represent the rest of the population.
- 3- Finally, most twin studies are reared in the same environment, which causes a major confounding variable as the concordance rates may have been due to shared learning experiences rather than genetics.
- Support to the diathesis-stress model
- 1- Mednick et al studied over 13000 Danish adoptees and found thatwhen neither the biological nor adoptive parents had convictions, the percentage of adoptees that did was 13.5%. When either of the biological had convictions, the figure rose to 20%. When both the adoptive and biological parents had convictions, the figure rose to 24.5%.
- 2- This shows that although genetic inheritance plays an important role in offending, environmental influence cannot be disregarded.
- Problems with adoption studies
- 1- Many children experience late adoption, which means that most of their infancy and childhood may have been spent with their biological parents
- 2- As well as this, the figures in the Mednick et al study only applied to petty offences, such as burglary.
- Problems with twin studies
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