Crime Zero is a techno-thriller by Michael Cordy (better known for his crazy-scientists-find-the-Genes-of-God book, "The Miracle Strain"). It's 2008, and violent crime has reached epidemic proportions, especially so in the United States...
Enter Project Conscience. This plan, endorsed by politicians and carried out by genetic engineers, aims to rehabilitate violent prisoners by changing their genetic code to make them less violent. But some members of the project (psychotic feminists, no less) would like to go much further than just treating prisoners...
It's up to disillusioned FBI criminal psychologist Luke Decker and his one-time lover Dr Kathy Kerr to fight this ruthless scheme that aims to alter the very course of human evolution...
This book is not quite as tacky as it sounds. There is some interesting "science", and it does make you think a little. It isn't the best techno-thriller written, and The Miracle Strain is better in my opinion, but it's not the worst, either.
'Certainly there is one gene which is shared by most criminals - and its complete DNA sequence is known. It is the single small gene, carried on the Y chromosome, which makes its carriers male. Most criminals are men: the criminality gene has been found! Needless to say, no-one suggests that geneticists should do anything about it.'
-- Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics, University College London.