- By Ben Ijeoma Adigwe
There is an age-old debate by scholars about the origin of criminal behaviour, whether it is nature or nurture.
In other words, is it the genetic makeup of a man that makes him a criminal or the influence of the environment that he grew up in?
Is the criminal made or born? Even the natives of Africa in our villages recognise an aspect of this controversy.
Instances abound where people observe that certain traits like stealing and prostitution run in certain families. There is a traditional adage that says: “You don’t tell an old rat to stop stealing. You only advise him to steal moderately.”
This recognises that certain criminal traits are inherent in certain individuals just like stealing is an inherent trait in rats to an almost helpless level.
My grandmother, Emily Okwumabua, who died a nonagenarian in 2007, once told me of a criminal trial she witnessed in the days of yore, during the colonial period.
The presiding judicial officer at the trial had to admit evidence of the fact that the woman who was accused of stealing was from a family that had no history of stealing. She was eventually discharged and acquitted.
In the days of the notorious deadly armed robber from Edo State called Lawrence Nomanyagbon Anini, a young man was among those publicly executed with him by firing squad.
It turned out that the young man’s two other brothers had at other different times been also executed for armed robbery. The press reported this phenomenon.
When the estranged parents of the boys were separately interviewed, each denied having stealing in their bloodline and pointed accusing fingers at each other.
The American Minister and author, Marilyn Hickey, in her book: Break the Generation Curse, related what she termed a true story of two American families:
“Max Jukes was an atheist who married a godless woman. Some 560 descendants were traced: 310 died as paupers, 150 became criminals, seven of them murderers, 100 were known to be drunkards and more than half of the women were prostitutes.
“The descendants of Max Jukes cost the United States government more than $1.25 million in 19th-century dollars.
“Jonathan Edwards was a contemporary of Max Jukes. He was a committed Christian who gave God first place in his life.
“He married a godly young lady, and some 1,394 descendants were traced: 295 graduated from college, of whom 13 became college presidents and 65 became professors, three were elected as United States senators, three as state governors, and others were sent as ministers to foreign countries; 30 were judges, 100 were lawyers (one the dean of an outstanding law school), 56 practised as physicians (one was the dean of a medical school), 75 became officers in the military, 100 were well-known missionaries, preachers and prominent authors.
“Another 80 held some form of public office, of whom three were mayors of large cities. One was the comptroller of the U.S. Treasury and another was vice president of the United States.
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“Not one of the descendants of the Edwards family was a liability to the government!”
The “Nature” school of thought in determining the root cause of crime posits that biological factors are the cause of criminal behaviour; and that one’s genes do play a prominent role in criminal behavior.
A study conducted in Denmark and Sweden showed that a biological background exists for criminal behaviour.
The study conducted on a large Dutch family in 1993 found a point mutation in the structural gene for monoamine oxidase A (a neurochemical in the brain) which was associated with aggressive criminal behaviour among the males in that family.
The males were reported to have a selective deficiency of that neurochemical which can lead to decreased concentration of 5- hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid in cerebrospinal fluid – thus suggesting that genetics plays an important role in antisocial or criminal behaviour.
An also low incorrect level of the chemical serotonin and dopamine in the brain has been found to be associated with impulsive and emotional aggression.
A professor of sociology some time ago at his inaugural lecture at the University of Benin, Nigeria stated that research has shown that there is a very low level of a certain vitamin in the body of thieves. He argued that there was thus a hereditary component in criminals.
Until the early 20th century, all attempts to explain criminal behaviour pointed to the theory that it was biological.
Later, by the end of World War 2, the biological theory was challenged by the second school of thought who said that it is nurture, the social environment that is the main reason why individuals commit crimes.
They say that environmental factors such as parenting, abuse, poverty, discrimination and unemployment account also for crimes.
Family studies that were conducted show that one could be predisposed to criminal behaviour as a result of inheritance, but the same person’s conduct and personality could still be modified by the environment.
Research shows that children who are neglected or abused in childhood are at 50 per cent greater risk of engaging in criminal acts.
Also, involvement with peer groups that are antisocial or delinquent can lead to criminal behaviour.
Some time ago, news had it that in California, in the United States of America, a survey was carried out on the inmates of a prison by researchers and it was discovered that down to a person, each of those prisoners who were there for a violent crime were all abused as a child.
The erudite then Chief Judge of Delta State, Nigeria, Hon Justice Marshall Umukoro, during the 2017 prison visits in an interview restated his earlier observation at the 2016 prison visit that most of the inmates were found to be products of broken and dysfunctional homes.
The great Dr. Nelson Mandela, a jurist in his own right, in his autobiography A Long Walk to Freedom stated that he believes that it was nurture that makes the criminal and not nature.
I beg to disagree with that great learned jurist in so far as he relegates the contribution of nature to criminal behaviour.
The general consensus now is that it is a combination of both biological factors and social environment that makes us who we are today.
Twins, adoption and family studies have revealed the interplay of genes and the environment.
If individuals with criminal genes are exposed to the right environment, then their chances are greater for engaging in criminal or anti-social behaviour.
What we now have is what is known in criminology as the biosocial model- recognising that social considerations regarding criminal activity also act on biology.
Crime is viewed now as a combination of both biological and environmental factors. Genetic disposition and environmental factors are intertwined.
There is evidence that the expression of genes is influenced by a wide variety of environmental factors.
A possibility exists therefore that disorders relating to such chemicals as serotonin and dopamine could be caused by stressful environmental situations.
What these studies point out is the fact that these people should be treated and rehabilitated rather than our being too judgmental against them.
Our Justice and prison system should be more corrective in approach rather than being just punitive institutions.
This could be the reason the Nazarene was very particular in the way we treat convicts, equating their right treatment with a passport to heaven.
According to Adrian Raine, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania: “If we want to stop crime, if we want to be able to understand the causes and develop treatment programmes to attack the causes, we really need to understand all the pieces.”
Essentially, the Judgmental aspect should be downplayed as the Master advised. Given the same genes and environment, these criminals have and face, anybody is capable of being a criminal.
The Mafia is reported to have said that given the right conditions, any man can be a thief. The immortal Abraham Lincoln believed that “ No man was to be eulogised for what he did: or censured for what he did or did not do because all of us are the children of conditions, of circumstances, of environment, of education, of acquired habits and of heredity moulding men as they are and will forever be”.
•Read more about Adigwe, a lawyer, poet, chartered mediator/conciliator and author, at benadigwe.com
