Using risk of crime detection to study change in mechanisms of decision making.

Perceptions of crime detection risk (e.g., risk of arrest) play an integral role in the criminal decision-making process.

History of incarceration and age-related neurodegeneration: Testing models of genetic and environmental risks in a longitudinal panel study of older adults.

History of incarceration is associated with an excess of morbidity and mortality. While the incarceration experience itself comes with substantive health risks (e.g.

Guidelines for Evaluating the Comparability of Down-Sampled GWAS Summary Statistics.

Proprietary genetic datasets are valuable for boosting the statistical power of genome-wide association studies (GWASs), but their use can restrict investigators from publicly sharing the resulting summary statistics. Although researchers can resort to sharing down-sampled versions that exclude restricted data, down-sampling reduces power and might change the genetic etiology of the phenotype being studied. These problems are further complicated when using multivariate GWAS methods, such as genomic structural equation modeling (Genomic SEM), that model genetic correlations across multiple traits.

Do polygenic indices capture "direct" effects on child externalizing behavior? Within-family analyses in two longitudinal birth cohorts.

Behaviors and disorders characterized by difficulties with self-regulation, such as problematic substance use, antisocial behavior, and symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), incur high costs for individuals, families, and communities. These externalizing behaviors often appear early in the life course and can have far-reaching consequences. Researchers have long been interested in direct measurements of genetic risk for externalizing behaviors, which can be incorporated alongside other known risk factors to improve efforts at early identification and intervention.

Genetic associations with parental investment from conception to wealth inheritance in six cohorts.

Genetic inheritance is not the only way parents' genes may affect children. It is also possible that parents' genes are associated with investments into children's development. We examined evidence for links between parental genetics and parental investments, from the prenatal period through to adulthood, using data from six population-based cohorts in the UK, US and New Zealand, together totalling 36,566 parents.

Guidelines for Evaluating the Comparability of Down-Sampled GWAS Summary Statistics.

Proprietary genetic datasets are valuable for boosting the statistical power of genome-wide association studies (GWASs), but their use can restrict investigators from publicly sharing the resulting summary statistics. Although researchers can resort to sharing down-sampled versions that exclude restricted data, down-sampling reduces power and might change the genetic etiology of the phenotype being studied. These problems are further complicated when using multivariate GWAS methods, such as genomic structural equation modeling (Genomic SEM), that model genetic correlations across multiple traits.

Socially Stratified Epigenetic Profiles Are Associated With Cognitive Functioning in Children and Adolescents.

Children's cognitive functioning and educational performance are socially stratified. Social inequality, including classism and racism, may operate partly via epigenetic mechanisms that modulate neurocognitive development. Following preregistered analyses of data from 1,183 participants, ages 8 to 19 years, from the Texas Twin Project, we found that children growing up in more socioeconomically disadvantaged families and neighborhoods and children from marginalized racial/ethnic groups exhibit DNA methylation profiles that, in previous studies of adults, were indicative of higher chronic inflammation, lower cognitive functioning, and a faster pace of biological aging.

Life-Course Persistent Antisocial Behavior and Accelerated Biological Aging in a Longitudinal Birth Cohort.

Prior research shows that individuals who have exhibited antisocial behavior are in poorer health than their same-aged peers. A major driver of poor health is aging itself, yet research has not investigated relationships between offending trajectories and biological aging. We tested the hypothesis that individuals following a life-course persistent (LCP) antisocial trajectory show accelerated aging in midlife.

Incarceration, polygenic risk, and depressive symptoms among males in late adulthood.

This study demonstrates how social and genetic factors jointly influence depression in late adulthood. We focus on the effect of incarceration, a major life event consistently found to be associated with mental health problems. Drawing on data from males in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study and the Health and Retirement Study, we conduct a polygenic score analysis based on a genome-wide association study on depressive symptoms.

Identifying Psychological Pathways to Polyvictimization: Evidence from a Longitudinal Cohort Study of Twins from the United Kingdom.

Objectives: Examine the extent to which cognitive/psychological characteristics predict later polyvictimization. We employ a twin-based design that allows us to test the social neurocriminology hypothesis that environmental factors influence brain-based characteristics and influence behaviors like victimization.

Methods: Using data from the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study ( = 1986), we capitalize on the natural experiment embedded in a discordant-twin design that allows for the adjustment of family environments and genetic factors.

The Genome-Wide Study of Human Social Behavior and Its Application in Sociology.

Recent years have seen a push for the integration of modern genomic methodologies with sociological inquiry. The inclusion of genomic approaches promises to help address long-standing issues in sociology (e.g.