Rowley, 1

Brianna Rowley 

Mr. Gardner 

Hairy Milkbags 

November 4, 2020 

Nurture V.S. Nature 

Violence is a characteristic that is shown in many individuals since the beginning of time. 

Often people who are violent portray antisocial or aggressive behavioral traits, and exert physical 

force intended to damage, hurt, or in severe cases kill. Because violence is so prevalent and 

widespread throughout society, scientists including psychologists, sociologists, biomedical 

researchers, and neuroscientists, who all study human behaviors, the brain, and genetic markers, 

have begun studying the exact causes of this destructive behavior. two important factors that are 

linked to violent behavior are nature and nurture. Nature means that genetics and biological 

factors determine human behavior, whereas nurture means peoples environment, experiences in 

life, and upbringing determine their behavior. Many have come to the conclusion that the main 

cause of violence is due to nurture, environmental factors, such as childhood maltreatment or 

being surrounded by violent behaviors as a child (learned behaviors). Others believe that the 

main cause is a result of nature, peoples genetics such as, having a low activity MAO-A allele in 

the brain, which is associated with aggression. With these being potential causes for violent 

behaviors, it leads to the question; Is nurture or nature the primary cause of violence shown in 

individuals? 

The genetic makeup of humans or their nature, was looked at quite closely to determine 

what genes took part in causing violent tendencies in people. In the early 1990, researchers 

began examining the MAO-A gene, also called Monoamine Oxidase which is responsible for the 
 Rowley, 2

breakdown of neurotransmitters including serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. Serotonin 

regulates your mood, Dopamine regulates body movements and is responsible for memory, 

reward and motivation, and norepinephrine responsible for autonomic nervous system activity 

and the flight or fight response. They discovered that low levels of MAO-A in the brain 

increased antisocial and aggressive behaviors in people. Studies also found that a dopamine 

transporter called DAT1 was found in boys who displayed delinquent aggressive behaviors and 

the DRD2 gene variant, which controls physiological function of motion, production of 

hormones, and the use of drugs, also caused a risk for violence. However it was only a risk when 

paired with the underlying stress and family issues. The Cadherin 13 gene variant or CDH 13, 

which is a risk gene for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD, substance abuse, and 

depression also contributed to violent behaviors in adolescents and criminals.  

Experiments were done on mice In 1995, where mices behaviors that lacked the MAOA

gene were observed. The adult male mice showed an increase in aggression and violent behaviors.

The study went on to examine the NO gene in mice, which is the gene that is found in emotion

regulating areas of the brain and is a neurotransmitter. In the article, “Violence—a noxious

cocktail of genes and the environment,” the Imperial College School of Medicine states,

“In mice, Nelson et al. found that disruption of the nNOS gene resulted in a large increase in

inappropriate aggressive and sexual behaviour.This abnormal behaviour was attributed to the

consequent low levels of NO in the brain.” Low levels of MOMA and NO resulted in increased

violence in the mice that were tested giving a better insight into what genes cause violent behaviors

in humans.

There was also a study done by a neuroscientist named James Fallon, where he took PET

scans of three violent criminals' brains including Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, and John Wayne
 Rowley, 3

Gacey. This is shown in the youtube video "Nature vs Nurture: What Makes a Serial Murderer,"

when Liz Shilling explains how, “. . . he took a random sample of not only his family, but also

serial killers . . . looking for . . . a chemical brian change in a PET scan . . . what he found is that

serial killers have this MAOA gene defect.” Although, the serial killers had this defect he also

found that some of his family members had the same defect but none of them were violent

criminals. This shows that the MAOA gene does not always determine whether you will be

violent. It is often linked with the environment someone was exposed to and how that affected the

chemicals and gene make up in their brain.

On the other hand, nurture or peoples experiences and upbringing, is also believed to be a

big part of why people are violent. There are numerous risk factors that can be applied to a violent

indivdual, including, suffering physical or sexual abuse, abusing drugs and alcohol, witnessing

violence in the home or family, or going through some kind of trauma. People who experience any

of these hardships have a greater chance of becoming violently aggressive and the more risk factors

they have the more their chances increase. This is displayed in the article, “Children and 

adolescents in high-risk environments are more likely to become violent adults,” when it 

explains, “When all high-risk factors were considered together, a person with high risk load 

(three or more of these risk factors) was ten times more likely to become violently aggressive.”  

There are also many psychological effects that accompany suffering violence or being

surrounded by it as a child. Those effects usually follow children into adulthood and have a huge

impact on themselves and society as a whole. In the article “Children Exposed to Violence,” it

states, “Children exposed to violence are more likely to have difficulty in school, abuse 

drugs or alcohol, act aggressively, suffer from depression or other mental health 

problems and engage in criminal behavior as adults.” this portrays the cycle of violence 
 Rowley, 4

and how being exposed to it at a young age can cause someone to become a violent 

individual themselves.   

There are direct links between subjection to childhood violence and how that follows 

individuals into adolescence. There are also variables that can affect how it transfers 

into adolescence as shown in the image below ( see fig. 1). 

Weaver, Chelsea M, et al. “Violence Breeds Violence: Childhood Exposure and Adolescent 
Conduct Problems.” Journal of Community Psychology, U.S. National Library of 
Medicine, Jan. 2008. 
This image represents the correlations between childhood exposure to violence, 
adolescent violent behaviors, adolescent delinquency, middle childhood social competence, 
childhood depression, and childhood gender. It explains how being exposed to violence at a 
young age can give a higher possibility for that child to act out violent behaviors in their 
adolescents or display a higher level of adolescent delinquency. It then goes on to show that 
children's social competence, depression, and their gender can determine the level at which the 
violence in adolescents is. If a child is more depressed with exposure to violence as a child they 
are more likely to have a higher chance of being violent in adolescents. Their competence and 
 Rowley, 5

gender can also have a big impact on the level of violence, as boys are inherently more violent 
than girls. 
Before doing much research on this topic, I believed that genes had nothing to do with 
violence in individuals. I believed violence was only a result of nurture, your life experiences and 
what you were exposed to as a child. I never liked the thought of thinking that my child could 
possibly be just born violent or have genetic make up that was violent. However, now that I more 
fully understand the genes that are involved with aggressive behaviors and violence and have 
looked at studies to back up people who are more violent usually have those genes or lack 
thereof, I can see how genes can play a big role in violent behaviors among people. Although I 
now feel genes are a part of violence, I still think that nature or the environment and our 
experiences still have a great deal to do with violence as well.  
They both are a part of causing violent behaviors in people, as the lack of the MAOA 
gene causes more aggressive behaviors and delinquency in individuals, the environmental 
factors, like sexual or physical abuse endured at a young age can cause psychological damage 
resulting in the creation of a violent individual in the future. Overall I think that a combination of 
both nurture and nature are the primary causes of violence shown in individuals.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rowley, 6

Works Cited  

Weaver, Chelsea M, et al. “Violence Breeds Violence: Childhood Exposure and Adolescent 
Conduct Problems.” Journal of Community Psychology, U.S. National Library of 
Medicine, Jan. 2008, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3124247/.