Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 16 April 1971:
Vol. 172. no. 3980, pp. 284 - 286
DOI: 10.1126/science.172.3980.284
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Height and Antisocial Behavior in XY and XYY Boys

Ernest B. Hook 1 and Dong-Soo Kim 1

1 Birth Defects Institute, New York State Department of Health, and Albany Medical College of Union University, Albany, New York 12208

The observed association of the XYY genotype with both (i) large height in childhood and (ii) institutionalization for antisocial behavior suggested that large size per se in childhood might tend to establish personality patterns leading to eventual incarceration for delinquency. To investigate this question, the height distributions of four groups of XY boys in institutions for nonpsychotic, nonretarded juvenile offenders were compared with the published standards as well as the predicted gaussian distributions calculated from the mean and variance of the age-adjusted heights of each group. In none of these groups was there evidence for an increased number of large individuals. But three XYY individuals in the same institutions all had heights greater than the 90th percentile of XY boys of the same race.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Variability in the Y Chromosome and Variability of Human Behavior.
E. Dorus (1980)
Arch Gen Psychiatry 37, 587-594
   Abstract »    PDF »
Criminality in XYY and XXY men.
H. Witkin, S. Mednick, F Schulsinger, E Bakkestrom, K. Christiansen, D. Goodenough, K Hirschhorn, C Lundsteen, D. Owen, J Philip, et al. (1976)
Science 193, 547-555
   PDF »
Neurochemical, Endocrine, Pharmacological, and Genetic Studies.
(1974)
Arch Neurol 30, 8-23
   Abstract »    PDF »
Behavioral Implications of the Human XYY Genotype.
E. B. Hook (1973)
Science 179, 139-150
   PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)