Sexual offending ‘runs in families’

Genetic factors may play a role in determining how likely someone is to commit sexual offences, a new study suggests.

Brothers and fathers of men convicted of sexual offences “are up to five times more likely to be convicted of sexual offences” than men in the general population, said report author Seena Fazel, a professor of forensic psychiatry at Oxford University.

The research published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, was conducted by researchers from Oxford University and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, using statistical methods to analyse data on all 21,566 men convicted of sexual offences in Sweden between 1973 and 2009.