A high ranking employee for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections went viral on social media Thursday after he posted a tweet suggesting "there is a genetic component to crime."

Bret Bucklen, the director for the DOC's Office of Research and Statistics, was engaged on May 1 in a political debate on Twitter that appears to have been based on the new Republican health care bill.

"There are those who are unfortunate. There are many more who made bad choices," Bucklen said. "Why can't liberals come to terms with that."

The debate took a turn, though, when Bucklen suggested crime was genetic.

One Twitter user responded, writing that "this could go toward a racist fallacy really quick and I hope it doesnt." To which Bucklen replied, "You doubt that there is a genetic component to crime?"

Race and crime have been scientifically linked with racists promoting the idea that Blacks and other ethnic minorities are genetically disposed to criminality, are less intelligent and lack work ethic to justify white superiority.

The ideas also go along with eugenics, a strain of thought from the early 20th century and adopted by the Nazi regime of Adolf Hltler that believed controlled breeding could improve the human race.

In recent years though, linking criminality and genetics has become more acceptable in science and a New York Times article from 2011 about it said researchers estimate about 100 studies showed a link between genes and crime.

But with nearly 2,000 retweets by Thursday afternoon, including one from new era civil rights activist Deray McKesson, Bucklen's comments were looked at through a racial lens by many social media users.

Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel noted the limits of social media in an email that was sent through a spokesperson to The Tribune.

"Complex subjects rarely are adequately defined in 140 characters," Wetzel said. "Department of Corrections employees have the right to freedom of expression on their personal social media accounts on their own time.

"With that being said, we recognize the sensitivity to a subject like this given the historic connotation of race in criminal justice policy," he added. "I have spoken to Dr. Bucklen, our Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, and that was not the intent of his remark and he should have used better judgment in his word choice and lack of context for his comments.

"That said," Wetzel said, "Dr. Bucklen has been a leader on my team in reducing biased and unjust policies in Pennsylvanias criminal justice system, including criminal justice reforms through the Justice Reinvestment Initiative and leading the fight against new mandatory minimums."

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Official's tweet causes flap in linking crime, genetics - The Philadelphia Tribune