The New Theory That Could Explain Crime and Violence in America

Forget what you’ve heard about guns and drugs. Scientists now believe the roots of crime may lie deep within our biology.

YOKIA MASON NEVER KNEW HER FATHER. Melvin Mason Sr. committed suicide when she was just six months old, leaving her in the care of her mother Geraldine, a violent alcoholic and crack addict. Geraldine was beaten by a succession of drug-using boyfriends, and she beat her own children too, including Yokia. Geraldine’s mother, Betty, also an alcoholic and a drug addict, lived with the family and often joined in.

As a young girl, Yokia would come home to find her mother and grandmother high or drunk, surrounded by men, whose status — friends or johns or dealers — was never very clear. Betty liked pornography and kept an abundance of it around the house. She also liked to be naked.

“Betty’s the one who told me what the birthday suit was,” Yokia told me recently. “I’m little and grandma’s like, ‘I got my birthday suit on,’ and I’m thinking it’s her birthday. Then I get older and I’m like, oh shit, grandma walking around naked, high, tripping. They had pornography around, just whatever, pornography, dicks, men, kids, just no respect.”

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