FORENSICS - Biological theories of offending - neural explanation
- Created by: EmilyEther
- Created on: 07-12-18 10:42
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- Neural explanation for offending
- Brain anatomy
- lots of anecdotal evidence for brain injury and violent behaviour
- Ulrike Meinhoff (leader of a Red Army Faction) - surgery for brain tumour led to personality change, according to ex husband
- Charles Whitman - Texas killer 1996 - tumour on amygdala
- Aaron Hernandez - had C.T.E after clashing heads numerous times during football
- William (2012) - 60% of youth offenders reported brain injury - causal - due to recklessness?
- Brain structure
- ASPD has been much researched
- Raine (2000) - 21 individs against matched controls and found:
- abnormalities in limbic system, including amygdala (suggesting inability to detect / respond to fear in victims) - psychopath test by Jon Ronson
- reduced prefrontal cortex - issues with decision making
- Kent (2001) - used fMRI to monitor brain activity during an emotion based task; ASPD show less limbic system and more frontal lobe activity - less emotion and more planning and control
- Neurotransmitters
- increased noradrenaline - altered stress response may make offenders more likely to respond aggressively
- more likely to respond in a stressful way than normal people
- low serotonin - linked to high aggression
- dopamine disruptions - a) link to addiction, b) offending behaviour may be rewarding - evolutionary
- increased noradrenaline - altered stress response may make offenders more likely to respond aggressively
- Evaluation (A03)
- cause and effect - neurotransmitters / brain structure = cause or actually an intervening variable
- research only shows correlation between brain injuries and later criminality BUT it could be someone who is a risk taker is more likely to get a head injury
- real world app - could lead to possible treatment methods
- biochemical explanations are more relevant to everyday life
- explanations are reductionist - simplifying criminal behaviour
- Krakowski (2003) - to make a casual link between serotonin and violent behav is too difficult. It depends on individ diffs and social context of behav.
- cause and effect - neurotransmitters / brain structure = cause or actually an intervening variable
- Hormonal
- testosterone - linked to aggressive acts
- more testos = more aggressive sports
- Wagner (1979) - castrated mice -> aggression reduced. Testosterone given to mice -> aggression increases. Causal evidence for role of testos in aggression, fits pattern of more male offenders
- testosterone - linked to aggressive acts
- Brain anatomy
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