Genetic Factors in Crime--Findings, Uses & Implications

The goal of the project will be to address and clarify the methodological, legal and philosophical issues raised by research on genetic factors in crime, and to introduce the public to this emerging debate. The project will convene a conference in the Fall of 1992 to bring together

- researchers investigating the genetics and neurobiology of criminal, violent and impulsive acts, and of related behavioral and psychiatric disorders;
- historians, sociologists and philosophers who will put the scientific research into historical, cultural and intellectual perspective;
- criminal justice specialists who will gauge the impact of this research on criminal investigation and adjudication; and
- legal scholars and moral philosophers who will discuss how the discovery of genetic predispositions may affect our practice of punishment and our conception of moral responsibility.

The conference organizers will videotape the proceedings for distribution to the media and educational groups, produce a special conference issue of The Report from the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, the Institute's widely-read quarterly, circulate conference papers as part of the Institute's Working Paper Series, and edit an anthology of conference papers for publication.