ABSTRACT
This chapter arguments in response to its perhaps somewhat provocative title, is not so much that genes 'aren't real' but rather that the reality of genes would seem to owe less to their factuality than to their persuasive power as objects of desire and their consequent plausibility as objects of knowledge. Genetic discourse is now fully embedded in our languages of kinship, of culture, of personal identity, of humanity, and of animality. The wording has an interesting resonance for the cultural field of genes. Reading emerged and has remained as one of the most prominent metaphors for genes and genetics across both popular and scientific contexts. Genes are likely to influence the occurrence of criminal behaviour in a probabilistic manner by contributing to individual dispositions that make a given individual more or less likely to behave in a criminal manner. Genes and genetics appear in contexts that range across diagnostic medicine, laboratory science, television documentary, celebrity and popular fiction.
