Elsevier

Comprehensive Psychiatry

Volume 51, Issue 2, March–April 2010, Pages 130-134
Comprehensive Psychiatry

Monoamine oxidase A genotype is associated with gang membership and weapon use

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2009.03.010Get rights and content

Abstract

Context

A functional polymorphism in the promoter region of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene has been found to be associated with a broad range of antisocial phenotypes, including physical violence. At the same time, it is well known that gang members represent some of the most serious violent offenders. Even so, no research has ever examined the association between MAOA and gang membership.

Objectives

The aim of this study is to examine the association between MAOA and gang membership and between MAOA and weapon use.

Design

We examined the effects of MAOA by using a molecular genetic association research design.

Setting

A nonclinical sample was used in this study.

Participants

Participants were drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (1155 females, 1041 males).

Main Outcome Measures

The outcome measures of this study are gang membership and weapon use.

Results

The low MAOA activity alleles conferred an increased risk of joining a gang and using a weapon in a fight for males but not for females. Moreover, among male gang members, those who used weapons in a fight were more likely to have a low MAOA activity allele when compared with male gang members who do not use weapons in a fight.

Conclusions

Male carriers of low MAOA activity alleles are at risk for becoming a gang member and, once a gang member, are at risk for using weapons in a fight.

Introduction

The low-activity alleles of a functional polymorphism in the promoter region of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene confer an increased risk to developing a range of antisocial phenotypes [1], [2]. To date, research has linked the low-activity MAOA alleles to various psychopathologies, maladaptive behaviors, cognitive dysfunctions, and criminal behaviors. Brunner et al [3] identified Brunner syndrome, which is an X-linked disorder characterized by impulsivity, heightened aggressiveness, mild mental retardation, and serious criminal behaviors including arson and sexual assault caused by MAOA deficiency. Samochowiec et al [4] tested whether length variation of the 30-bp repeat of the MAOA polymorphism was associated with variation in antisocial behavior and alcohol dependence using a clinical sample of 488 German males including 59 alcoholics with antisocial personality disorder. Prevalence of the low-activity 3-repeat allele was significantly higher among the 59 antisocial alcoholics compared with 185 controls (51% vs 35%, P = .031) and compared with 244 alcoholics without antisocial personality disorder (51% vs 32%, P = .0008). The authors concluded that the low-activity 3-repeat allele conferred increased susceptibility to antisocial behavior. Based on data from a sample of 41 autistic males, Cohen et al [5] found that males with the low-activity MAOA genotype demonstrated more severe autistic behaviors and had lower IQ than peers with the high-activity MAOA gene.

Caspi et al [1] used data from a New Zealand birth cohort to study gene-environment interplay involved in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and adult antisocial behavior. They found that males who possessed low-activity MAOA alleles and who had been maltreated were significantly likely to evince conduct disorder, antisocial personality, and violent, antisocial behavior. Subsequent validation studies affirmed the gene-environment interaction (maltreatment × MAOA) among white but not African American youths [6], whereas others reported null effects based on a community sample [7]. Recently, Kim-Cohen et al [2] reported confirmatory evidence of a link between MAOA-maltreatment and psychiatric symptoms and conducted a meta-analysis that further implicated MAOA as a candidate gene for antisocial phenotypes.

One hypothesis for the pleiotropic effects of MAOA is that it affects the regulation of emotion and cognition in the limbic system. For instance, Meyer-Lindenberg et al [8] found that carriers of the low-activity MAOA polymorphism (2, 3, or 5 repeats) showed 8% reductions in gray matter volumes in the amygdala, cingulated gyrus, insula, and hypothalamus compared with carriers of the high-activity MAOA (3.5 or 4 repeats). Functional magnetic resonance imaging analyses showed that carriers of the low-activity MAOA had increased amygdala arousal and diminished reactivity of the regulatory prefrontal cortex particularly among males. Although MAOA has been associated with a range of antisocial phenotypes, no prior study has linked it to gang membership. This study assessed the role of MAOA in predicting gang membership—and the use of weapons for violent means while involved in gangs—among a sample of youths.

Section snippets

Data

This study uses data drawn from the genetic subsample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Detailed information about the Add Health data has been published elsewhere [9], [10]. Briefly, the Add Health is a prospective and nationally representative sample of American youths. Data collection efforts began in 1994 when more than 90 000 students completed self-report surveys during regular school hours. A subsample of 20 745 participants and 17 700 of their primary

Monoamine oxidase A

The MAOA gene is a polymorphic gene that is found on the X chromosome at location Xp11.23-11.4 [11]. The polymorphism arises from a 30 base pair variable number of tandem repeats upstream in the 5′ regulatory region of the gene. The Add Health participants were genotyped for this polymorphism using a variant of the assay developed previously [12]. Primer sequences were as follows: forward, 5′ACAGCCTGACCG-TGGAGAAG-3′ (fluorescently labeled); and reverse, 5′-GAACGTGACGCTCCATTCGGA-3′. This assay

Statistical analyses

The analysis for this study proceeds in a number of interlocked steps. First, logistic regression models will be calculated to determine whether MAOA is associated with gang membership and with weapon use in a fight. Second, logistic regression models will be calculated to determine whether MAOA is able to distinguish between gang members who used a weapon in a fight from those gang members who did not use a weapon in a fight. These models will be confined only to gang members. Given that MAOA

Results

Table 2 contains the results of the binary logistic regression models predicting gang membership and weapon use for females. As can be seen, MAOA was unrelated to both gang membership and weapon use. Race was unrelated to both dependent variables, whereas age maintained an inverse relationship with gang membership and weapon use.

Table 3 contains the results of the binary logistic regression models predicting gang membership and weapon use for males. In contrast to the female models, MAOA had a

Comment

An impressive amount of empirical research has demonstrated that the low MAOA activity alleles are associated with a range of antisocial phenotypes, including serious physical violence and criminal behavior. This study extended this line of research and examined the relationship between MAOA and gang membership and between MAOA and weapon use. The results of the analyses revealed that male carriers of the low MAOA activity alleles were more likely to join gangs than were males who possessed the

Acknowledgment

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded through grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due to Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add

References (19)

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    If the respondent had indicated that they had been part of a named gang at either of these two waves (i.e., they received a score of “1” on either of the wave-specific gang membership questions), then they were scored as a “1”; otherwise, they were scored as a “0”. Importantly, previous Add Health research has used these same wave-specific gang measures (Beaver, DeLisi, Vaughn, & Barnes, 2010; DeLisi et al., 2009). See Table 1 for descriptive statistics for the gang membership measure and all of the other measures included in the current study.

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