Both Sides of Nature Vs. Nurture

This report will examine the contrast between the theories of nature vs. nurture and crime. The correlation between the two has been debated for years now. Some say that it is nature who hard-wires us to become whoever and whatever we become in life. However, there are those who disagree and say that it is the way in which one is brought up and his surroundings that predispose that person to a life of crime. This report will attempt to shed some light on that very subject by giving a couple of examples and talking about the Jukes family and the Kallikak family.

Both Sides of Nature vs. Nurture

For many years, the debate has raged on about the theories of nature vs. nurture. Another way to look at it is genes vs. behavior. Is it our gene make-up that predetermines how one will turn out in life? Some say that it is. And, there are those that attest to the fact that, as young people growing up, a favorable amount of our upbringing has a lot to do with how one’s life turns out. Are the genes in our body what propel us to a life of crime? Or, is it our environment? Studies show that juveniles with a family member who has been incarcerated stand a greater chance of being incarcerated themselves. Do these characteristics of a life of crime carry on from one generation to the next? This report will investigate and try to find an answer to that question. Perhaps, there is a simple answer for that question and maybe, in trying to find that answer, it opens up a new can of worms. The relationship between nature and nurture can be found by studying genes and behavior.

An American scientist was propelled to find out what made the human being engage in anti-social and undesirable behavior. As it were, there was a family in Ulster County, New York that would give him the kind of research and information that he was looking for. This family, whose identity would remain anonymous, would be referred to as the Jukes. Needless to say, this family was plagued with incarcerations, petty crimes, prisons and poorhouses. They were discovered by a physician named Elisha Harris, who later turned over his investigation to a man named Dugale. He felt as though the poor behaviors of the Juke family members could be traced to their surroundings and not their hereditary factors. Moreover, the study done by Dugale was later looked upon and viewed not as the environmental factors had influenced the Jukes, rather than anti-social behavior was passed down for one generation to the next by genetics. Later it was researched and found that the Jukes lived on the outer most fringes of society in the 19th century, and that is what always foreshadowed their troubles within their society (Jukes Family, n.d.).

Along with the Jukes family was another well-known anonymous family known as the Kallikak family. This case involved the descendants of a man known as Martin Kallikak. He produced