The web of addiction: Biology and environment in substance abuse and crime

While medical research generally views substance abuse as a disorder owing to a combination of both biological and environmental risk factors, criminological research classifies it as antisocial behavior and seeks for predisposing factors in social/environmental influences. Building on this backdrop, the present study examined the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors in substance abuse and delinquency among substance abusers. Using the twin sample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the current study uncovered two prominent findings. First, 33 percent of the variance in substance abuse was attributable to genetic factors with the remaining variance being explained by nonshared environmental factors. Second, utilizing group-based trajectory modeling techniques, it was discovered that substance abusers constitute a large proportion of adolescent-limited as well as chronic offenders.