Can criminality be inherited, and can the birth of a child to parents, one or both of whom are accustomed to criminality, provide him with genes that make him a natural criminal? Questions have preoccupied many researchers, most notably the scholar specializing in sociology and criminology, Robert J. Sampson, who relied on a huge project that followed thousands of children and youth in Chicago over the course of decades, revealing a number of surprises and unexpected results regarding the most prominent question: Is crime natural or acquired?
Are people born natural criminals?
In 1876, the Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso put forward one of the most controversial hypotheses in the history of criminology, which is that humans do not become criminals, but are born as such, and that there is always something that distinguishes them and makes them easy to know.
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This is how Lambroso walked in Italian prisons carrying compasses and a measuring tape to prove his hypothesis that evil is measurable and that criminals have common formal features such as a low forehead, a prominent jaw, and large ears. This is a hypothesis that he presented with pictures and numbers in his book “The Criminal Man” in the late nineteenth century. However, many subsequent studies refuted Lambroso’s point of view, as it did not seem that crime could be measured “formally.”
However, the matter remained a question for the next two centuries. In 2018, a study published in the journal Psychological Science asked a key question: “Is there a genetic basis that makes some people more susceptible to criminal or antisocial behavior?”
To answer this, researchers followed two large groups of people for many years to test whether their genes might be linked to antisocial or criminal behavior, but the results were very exciting. Researchers found that there is a statistical correlation between some genetic predispositions and an increased likelihood of anti-social behavior, but does this prove that a group of people may be born to commit crimes by nature?
The answer was no, as the study also concluded that the aforementioned genetic influence is relatively limited, and not strong enough to predict who will become a criminal.
The researchers also concluded that there is no such thing as a “crime gene,” and that criminal behavior in reality does not result from a single gene or even a specific set of genes inevitably. However, genes remain part of a complex interaction between them and a group of factors that may or may not make an ordinary person a criminal.
The timing of your existence may change your entire destiny
In February 2026, the scientist specializing in sociology and criminology, Robert J. Sampson, tried to repeat the question again, but this time in order to find a different answer, through an entire book entitled “Marked by Time,” published by “Harvard University Press.”
In the book, Sampson attempts to demolish one of the most established ideas, which is that a child’s fate or the possibility of him becoming a criminal can be predicted mainly through his personal characteristics, his family, or his level of self-control, stressing that there is a huge factor that is usually ignored, in addition to other factors capable of turning an innocent child into a future criminal, which is the factor of time.
The book was based on a research project that spanned nearly 30 years, during which Sampson followed more than a thousand children and youth in the city of Chicago across several generations and different age groups, which allowed him to compare the lives of children born in the mid-1980s with children born in the mid-1990s who lived in relatively similar neighborhoods. However, he discovered that children born in the mid-1980s were almost twice as likely to be arrested by their mid-twenties compared to those born just one decade after them.
Sampson believes that treating criminality as a genetic or individual “trait” and assigning its responsibilities entirely to the person or the environment surrounding him is not entirely accurate, as time is an essential variable in the treatment because it includes basic matters such as the surrounding historical circumstances, public policies, economic transformations, and even the rates of violence surrounding the generation itself.
7 reasons that may turn an innocent person into a potential perpetrator
People do not suddenly become criminals, but this happens as a result of the intersection of many elements and reasons that lead some to violate the law and commit crimes of all kinds, the most prominent of which are:
- Exposure to environmental toxins such as leadAccording to a study published in 2000, researchers found a strong temporal link between exposure to lead in childhood and an increase in violent crime about 20 years later.
- Extreme povertyIn his 1987 book, American sociologist William Julius Wilson pointed out that economic deprivation in poor neighborhoods can completely alter the course of a life and increase the likelihood of imprisonment.
- Childhood abuse Violence, as well as sexual assaults, may transform a child from a subject to an actor of violence, and a pioneering study conducted in 1992 indicates that children who have been exposed to abuse are more likely to be arrested and commit crimes later compared to their peers.
- Exposure to neglect Inequality is one of the most prominent reasons for turning to violence without genetic reasons, as scientists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Beckett point out in their book published in 2009 entitled “The Spirit Level” that the huge disparity in the distribution of wealth has a deeper impact on the well-being of society and consequently on crime rates as an indicator among other indicators.
- Criminal policies and penal policies It may be a reason for reproducing crime instead of preventing it, which is what American writer Michelle Alexander addressed in her book “The New Jim Crow,” published in 2010, where she pointed out that in some cases there is systemic racism that casts a shadow over the punished person and his entire family, which may produce new generations of criminals instead of putting an end to it.
- Family and social environment It also has a major role, according to the theory of disintegration and social disorder in criminology. People do not become criminals only because of their personalities, but because they may belong to families, neighborhoods, or even communities that lose their ability to organize themselves and control behavior within them.
- Historical time As Sampson mentioned in his book “Marked by Time,” sometimes two children differ in almost nothing, except that they were born in two different decades, but their life outcomes differ because of the circumstances surrounding their generation.
Ways to avoid tragedy
The World Health Organization indicates that violence is responsible for killing 1.5 million people every year, between the ages of 15 and 44 around the world. The organization proposes a set of measures that would stand in the way of creating more criminals, the most prominent of which are:
- Supporting families early and training parents on how to deal with children.
- Developing children’s social and emotional skills.
- Improving educational opportunities.
- Reducing alcohol and drug use.
- Reducing access to violence and weapons.
- Reducing poverty and marginalization.
- Reduce exposure to lead.
However, receiving early education and support remains one of the most prominent reasons that reduced the chances of children being arrested and imprisoned in adulthood, according to one of the most famous studies in the world, which followed poor children for decades, and monitored the effect of both early education and support in changing life trajectories.
