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Biosocial studies of antisocial and violent behavior in children and adults: a review - 1

Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, August, 2002 by Adrian Raine

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One explanation for this pattern of results is the "social push" hypothesis. Under this perspective, where an antisocial child lacks social factors that "push" or predispose him/her to antisocial behavior, then biological factors may more likely explain antisocial behavior (Mednick, 1977; Raine & Venables, 1981). In contrast, social causes of criminal behavior may be more important explanations of antisociality in those exposed to adverse early home conditions. This is not to say that antisocial children from adverse home backgrounds will never evidence biological risk factors for antisocial and violent behavior--they clearly will. Instead, the argument is that in such situations the link between antisocial behavior and biological risk factors will be weaker (relative to antisocial children from benign social backgrounds) because the social causes of crime camouflage the biological contribution. Conversely, in the case of antisocial children from benign home backgrounds, the "noise" created by social influenc es on antisocial behavior are minimized, allowing the biology-- antisocial behavior relationship to shine through.

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The importance of this perspective is that biological researchers would be well-advised to take into account psychosocial risk factors if they want to uncover stronger biology--antisocial relationships. Reversing the approach, psychosocial researchers may find stronger links between psychosocial influences and antisocial behavior in children who lack biological risk factors for antisocial behavior, although to date no one appears to have tested this proposition.

Interactions Between Psychophysiological and Social Risk Factors

These examples of biosocial interactions are unusual in that the psychophysiological variable is the dependent variable. In these cases, the question that is being asked is whether antisocial individuals with good or bad social backgrounds differ in psychophysiological functioning. When antisocial behavior becomes the dependent variable however, a different conceptual question is posed, namely, is antisocial behavior greatest in those with both social and biological risk factors? Put another way, do psychophysiological factors interact with social factors in explaining the outcome of antisocial behavior?

There have been fewer examples of studies addressing this question in the psychophysiological literature. One particularly thorough analysis is given by Farrington (1997) with respect to statistically significant interactions between resting heart rate and psychosocial variables. Boys with low resting heart rates are more likely to become violent adult offenders if they also have a poor relationship with their parent, and if they come from a large family (Farrington, 1997). Similarly, boys with low heart rates are especially likely to be rated as aggressive by their teachers if their mother was pregnant as a teenager, if they come from a low SES family, or if they were separated from a parent by age 10 (Farrington, 1997).

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Biosocial studies of antisocial and violent behavior in children and adults: a review - 1

Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, August, 2002 by Adrian Raine

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