The common view is that the environment in which children were raised plays the major role in predicting criminal behavior. Adoption studies show that the major effect is derived from a combination of "bad genes" and "bad environment," not a bad environment per se. Placing a non-genetically predisposed child into a bad environment has relatively little effect on criminal outcome, suggesting that if the seed is not "bad," it will not grow. By contrast, the "bad seed" will grow in either environment but it sprouts fastest in a "bad environment." Two conclusions seem reasonable. First, social programs will have a maximum effect by targeting the combination of genetic and environmental effects. Second, problems with criminal behavior would be most effectively addressed by eliminating the effect of the genes rather than the effect of the environment.
David E. Comings in his chapter, "Conduct Disorder: A Genetic, Orbitofrontal Lobe Disorder that is the Major Predictor of Adult Antisocial Behavior"