Law and Contemporary Problems

In April of 2005, a group of scientists, scholars, policymakers, and legal professionals gathered at Duke Law School to discuss the implications of attempts to introduce behavioral biology evidence into the criminal justice system. The conference, entitled “The Impact of Behavioral Genetics on the Criminal Law,” was sponsored by Law and Contemporary Problems; the Institute for Genome Science and Policy’s Center for Genome Ethics, Law, and Policy; and the Science and Technology Law Section of the American Bar Association. The articles published in this symposium reflect the presentations and commentary from that conference and demonstrate the multidisciplinary nature of the issues that arise from introducing behavioral genetics evidence into criminal proceedings. The first two articles of the volume serve as a primer on the meaning of behavioral genetics, an introduction to recent scientific strides in the field and to its limitations in explaining the causes of human behavior. In the first article, Behavioral Genetics: The Science of Antisocial Behavior, scientists Laura A. Baker, Serena Bezdjian, and Adrian Raine discuss the methodologies and results of behavioral genetics studies focusing on such traits as antisocial behavior, aggression, and behaviors associated with criminal conduct. Their article describes in detail the classic methods as well as more recent research designs of behavioral genetics studies, along with the various assumptions, strengths, and weaknesses of each approach. It discusses the leading scientific