The Role of Heart Rate Levels in the Intergenerational Transmission of Crime

Abstract

Abstract:Several prospective multigenerational studies have shown that crime runs in the family, while empirical research on the biological causes of crime has also established that low heart rate is related to antisocial behavior. This study examines whether the intergenerational transmission of crime is moderated or mediated by a low heart rate of the son. Prospectively collected conviction data on 794 men from three consecutive generations of the Dutch Transfive dataset is used. Heart rates were measured around age 18, during the medical examination prior to the mandatory military service in the Dutch army. All analyses were conducted separately for violent and non-violent crime. Both paternal violence and low heart rate levels are associated with increased violent offending. Intergenerational transmission of violence was only found among families in which the son had a low heart rate, although the degree of transmission did not differ significantly from families in which the son had a high heart rate. No support was found for a mediating influence of low heart rates of criminals' offspring on the intergenerational transmission of crime and violence. The results from this study underline the importance to focus on the interaction between biological risk factors and psychosocial risk factors for criminal behavior.

Interactions Between Resting Heart Rate and Childhood Risk Factors in Predicting Convictions and Antisocial Personality Scores

“…These studies generally show that antisocial outcomes are found only among children with a combination of psychosocial risk and low RHR. More comparably with the present research, Van de Weijer et al (2017) in the Netherlands showed that there was intergenerational transmission of convictions for violence only among men with low RHR at Age 18. Van Hazebroek et al (2019) completed a systematic review of biopsychosocial interaction studies and also concluded that it was the combination of social adversity and low RHR that was related to antisocial outcomes.…”

Biosocial studies of antisocial behavior: A systematic review of interactions between peri/prenatal complications, psychophysiological parameters, and social risk factors

“…One study found that higher RHR protected subjects against developing proactive aggression in the context of community violence victimization (Scarpa, Tanaka, & Haden, 2008). In contrast, interactions between RHR and fathers' criminal history were not associated with delinquent behavior (van de Weijer, de Jong, Bijleveld, Blokland, & Raine, 2017).…”