The desire to rape is in the genes, says study on sex offences
The largest study on sex offences that looked at data over 37 years (1973 and 2009) involving 21,566 men has confirmed that brothers and fathers of men convicted of sexual offences are up to five times more likely to commit a rape or assault than the general public.
The study has been jointly done by researchers from Oxford University and the Karolinska Institute (Sweden) involving men convicted of sexual offences.
Lead author Professor Seena Fazel - an expert on forensic psychology at Oxford University - said around 40% of the risk of committing a sex crime is genetic with the remaining 60% due to personal and environmental factors.
Genetic factors have been found to be behind sexual crimes. It leads to increased impulses or a high sex drive among men in the same family.
According to the study, those with a brother who is convicted of a sexual offence are five times higher of being convicted of a sexual offence compared to a man whose brother had not been convicted of this type of crime.
we have found is high quality evidence from a large population study that genetic factors have a substantial influence on an increased risk of being convicted of sexual offences," said professor Fazel.
According to the study, sexual aggression has become a substantial social threat with one-quarter of women and one-tenth of men report being sexually victimized in their lifetime.
The desire to rape is in our genes, says study on sex offences - The Times of India
