Three studies over the past five years hint that the especially dangerous 2-repeat allele might be more common among African Americans. In one study, 6% of nonwhite subjects had this allele.2 In another, five of 37 (14%) African-American men possessed these rare MAOA alleles.3 Those percentages are remarkable given that in both studies, fewer than one percent of white men had this gene. A third study determined that 0.5% of white MAOA genes and 4.7% of African-American MAOA genes feature this 2-repeat allele—almost a tenfold difference.4
If a single gene could offer some explanation as to why African-Americans commit roughly five times as many violent crimes per capita as whites, wouldn’t studying it—and how to treat it—potentially save countless lives and deserve a Nobel Prize?
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