ANTISOCIAL behaviour is largely inherited among a significant minority of children who have trouble empathising with others, British scientists have found.

A study of 3,687 pairs of seven-year-old twins revealed strong genetic roots for poor behaviour in children who also show signs of psychopathic traits, such as a lack of remorse or understanding for the feelings of others. The research at King’s College London, also points to environmental factors, such as social and family background, as the chief cause of antisocial activity among a larger group of badly behaved children.

The findings cast light on the origins of yobbish conduct among children and adolescents. The Government made measures to tackle public-order problems and build a “culture of respect” the centrepiece of the Queen’s Speech last week.

Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, has called for stiffer penalties for young thugs who use hooded tops to conceal their identities.

Essi Viding, of the college’s Institute of Psychiatry, who led the study, said it suggested that much teenage antisocial behaviour has origins earlier in life and that efforts to prevent it need to begin at a young age.

Even when children have a genetic predisposition to such problems, this is likely to respond to environmental triggers that could be reduced by early interventions.

Research led by Temi Moffitt, one of the team members, has established that boys with a particular version of a gene called MAOA are more likely to grow into antisocial adults, but only if they are also maltreated as children. In the study, published today in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Dr Viding compared pairs of identical and non-identical twins.

Dr Viding investigated children classed by their teachers as among the most antisocial and disruptive 10 per cent, and further split these into two groups. One of the groups showed psychopathic or “callous-unemotional” traits, such as a lack of empathy and guilt, while the other did not.

In the callous-unemotional group, antisocial behaviour was about 81 per cent heritable — meaning that four fifths of the differences between them and the general population appear to be explained by genetic factors.Genetic influence on antisocial behaviour in the other, larger group was much lower — heritability was about 30 per cent, with the remainding variability explained by environmental factors.

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