DEMONSTRATING THE VALIDITY OF TWIN RESEARCH IN CRIMINOLOGY |
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| Authors: | J C BARNES JOHN PAUL WRIGHT BRIAN B BOUTWELL JOSEPH A SCHWARTZ ERIC J CONNOLLY JOSEPH L NEDELEC KEVIN M BEAVER |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati;2. Center for Social and Humanities Research, King Abdulaziz University, , Jeddah;3. School of Social Work, Saint Louis University;4. School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska at Omaha;5. Criminal Justice Department, Pennsylvania State University, , Abington;6. College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University |
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| Abstract: | In a recent article published in Criminology, Burt and Simons ( 2014 ) claimed that the statistical violations of the classical twin design render heritability studies useless. Claiming quantitative genetics is “fatally flawed” and describing the results generated from these models as “preposterous,” Burt and Simons took the unprecedented step to call for abandoning heritability studies and their constituent findings. We show that their call for an “end to heritability studies” was premature, misleading, and entirely without merit. Specifically, we trace the history of behavioral genetics and show that 1) the Burt and Simons critique dates back 40 years and has been subject to a broad array of empirical investigations, 2) the violation of assumptions in twin models does not invalidate their results, and 3) Burt and Simons created a distorted and highly misleading portrait of behavioral genetics and those who use quantitative genetic approaches. |
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| Keywords: | assumptions behavior genetics biosocial empirical quantitative twins |
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