Which methodological approach compares criminal behavior across biological relatives to assess heritability?

• A. Individualistic Theories
• B. Psychodynamic Theories
• C. Twin Studies
• D. Learning Theories

Answer: (C)

The idea is to use relatives who share different amounts of genetic material to see how much of criminal behavior is linked to genes. Twin studies do this by comparing identical twins, who share all their genes, with fraternal twins, who share about half. If criminal behavior is more common or similarly shared in identical twins than in fraternal twins, that points to a genetic influence on the propensity to offend. This approach is specifically designed to estimate heritability by separating genetic factors from environmental ones, whereas the other theories describe why people might commit crimes without measuring genetic contribution. Keep in mind that heritability is a population-level concept and such studies rely on assumptions about environments being similar for twins and other methodological limits.