ABSTRACT
If a small number of individuals are responsible for a large percentage of the violence and criminal behavior in a society, then preventing the crimes caused by most of these individuals would have a large impact on the rates of violence and crime in that society. If these individuals could be picked out, preferably early in their criminal careers, or, better yet, before their criminal careers had started, and could be prevented from committing (more) crimes, the rates of violence and crimes more generally could be quite efficiently reduced. And if violence and criminality are the result of genetic, and more generally biological, predispositions, then, the argument goes, it should be possible to do so.
