Introduction: Cracking the Code of Life All organisms on the planet have chromosomes that carry genetic material that makes them protein after protein and is passed down from generation to generation. Whatever the organism, fruit fly or humans, we all have DNA (Blum, et al, 2010). To understand crime, we must first invest time in understanding why humans behave and respond in a given situation. We must look deep into the brain which is the result of our anatomy, neurochemistry, physiology and genome (Blum, et al, 2010). The genome is the most important because it determines the other three together with environmental factors. The field of behavioral genetics seeks the answer to the complex intertwining of nature and nurture. ADHD and Epigenetics Epigenetics is the study of how inherited traits are expressed and influenced by the environment, and it is extremely complex. Joseph Nadeau has traced over one hundred biochemical, physiological, and behavioral traits influenced by epigenetics. He has seen them passed down from generation to generation (Blum, et al, 2010). ADHD, which has been linked to antisocial behavior, is believed to have epigenetic roots. In an adoption study conducted by a group of colleagues, they found that if the mother was an alcoholic or a criminal, the child was at high risk for ADHD. If the father was a criminal, the child was also at greater risk, but having an alcoholic father did not appear to have any effect on the offspring in terms of developing ADHD (Beaver, Nedelec, et al, 2011). Criminal behavior would be the genetic control and alcoholism the environmental factor. While both play a role, genes are still the platform upon which the environment works to create what… middle of paper… are actions (Wolfson, 2014). If they are punished, it's not fair. If they don't get punished, well, that's not fair either. It may not be the person's fault that they committed a crime, but if it is in their genes, then it doesn't matter; this is still who I am. We can choose who we want to be only to a certain extent because our genes control the rest. Crime and genetics is a fairly new field of study, but it is growing rapidly, and although scientists have sequenced the entire human genome, they still do not know what most of it encodes (Wolfson, 2014). In the future, there may be further discoveries of genes like the MAOA gene that can help us understand human behavior and that could ultimately lead to understanding how DNA builds and connects our brains. Gaining knowledge of how the brain works would be one of the greatest discoveries in scientific history.