Maltreatment may be related to antisocial behavior not because it has a direct environmental influence, but because of the correlation between the genetic influences on antisocial behavior and the “environmental” influence of childhood maltreatment (i.e., gene-environment correlation). Childhood maltreatment may occur more often in families where the parents and children have greater genetic risk for antisocial behavior. These hypotheses are important to consider, as heredity accounts for approximately 40% of population variance in antisocial behavior (Rhee and Waldman 2002).
