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120  `Criminal Genetic Types'
     Pose a Research Dilemma
     The Washington Post  Saturday, October 19, 1968

     Austin, Texas -- The XYY chromosome anomaly was the subject of
considerable discussion at the meeting here last week of the American
Society of Human Genetics.  The men showing this anomaly are ironically
called  "supermales,"  for they have two Y chromosomes in place of
the single Y of normal XY males, which in turn distinguishes us from
normal XX females.

     However, most of the XYY males so far described were found as
inmates of institutions for psychopathic criminals.  The question 
under discussion here was just how frequently they occur in the whole
population, and in order to answer this, several investigators have
screened large numbers of randomly chosen newborn children.

     The figures in various studies have been grossly inconsistent,
varying from one in 250 to less than one in 2000.  It is not yet
possible to explain this inconsistency, and some speculate that this
and other chromosome anomalies may occur in clusters, conceivably as
a side effect of local virus epidemics.  It costs about $50 to examine
a single individual carefully for his chromosome type, and it is
therefore obvious that the necessary large-scale studies to clear up
the origin of the anomalies will be tedious and expensive.

     There is enough evidence to support the concept that XYY males 
are abnormally predisposed to get into the most serious difficulties
in their social adjustment, but we have no idea about the roots of the
problem or just what fraction of XYYs will make such miserable failures
of their own lives and conflict so much harm on others.  This
concept has been reinforced by lurid examples of mass murderers 
purported to be XYY in cases still under adjudication.

     It was further reinforced in the last fews days by news from 
Melbourne that one Edward Hannell, charged with murder, was aquitted on 
grounds of insanity on evidence that he was an XYY and that "every
cell in his brain is abnormal."  The news accounts did not give full
details of the trial and we may hope that the verdict was supported
by more specific evidence of the defendant's mental incompetence.

     A dozen or so newborn XYYs have been identified in the research
screening programs reported here.  We know so little of the biology of
violence, and the social interest in the subject is so great, that it
would obviously be of the greatest importance to follow the development
of these children through adulthood.  It would, however, be a
tragic injustice to identify them--if for no other reason than the
likelihood that this would contribute  to their alienation and besides
blighting their lives, confound our conclusions about the significance
of the XYY anomaly.

     It is known, for example, that the Y chromosome differs in
different individuals, and it is possible that only one specific kind
of Y chromosome (not yet classified) is associated with the psychopathic
outcome when doubled.  But we can never learn this without studying
whatever case of the anomaly can be identified.

     The researchers are well aware of their dilemma.  The best design
for experimental observations would be "double-blind" to keep the
identity of the XYY secret from the observers in a study involving 
numerous other control children.

     This is already a social dilemma, too, and the confrontation of
individuals social interests may become worse if we adopt too rigid
and too fatalistic a view of the predestination of "criminal genetic
types."  One line of thought would lead naturally to the sacrifice of
XYY newborn as more humane disposition than allowing them to live out
their predisposed fates.

     To say this is to reject it in favor of the alternative: to learn
how to restore to them the possibility of membership in the human 
community.  Indeed, we should remember that even a single Y chromosome
already conveys a strong disposition to violence in our species.

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