biological - inherited criminality
- Created by: Elyseee
- Created on: 10-02-21 12:43
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- inherited criminality
- Genetic factors
- Genetic argument proposes that one or more genes predispose individuals to criminal behaviours
- Evidence comes from twin studies with identical and non-identical twins (MZ and DZ)
- Raine 1993 - reviewed research on delinquent behaviour of twins, found 52% concordance for MZ twins compared to 21% in DZ twins
- Searching for candidate genes
- Two genes especially linked to criminal behaviour - MAOA and CDH13
- Brunner et al 1993 - analysed DNA of 28 male members of a dutch family with history of violent crime eg) ****/attempted murder. Found that they shared a particular gene leading to abnormally low MAOA levels
- Finish study, Tiihonen et al 2015 - 900 offenders, evidence of low MAOA and CDH13 gene activity. Estimated 5-10% of all violent crime in Finland is due to abnormality in these genes
- Diathesis stress
- Epigenetics - proposes interplay where genes are switched on or off by epigenomes which have been affected by environmental factors
- One possible environmental factor is maltreatment in childhood
- Caspi et al - assessed antisocial behaviour at age 26, found 12% of men with low MAOA gene had experienced maltreatment were responsible for 44% of violent convictions
- Differences in the brain
- Criminal genes may cause differences in key neurotransmitters
- Raine 2004 - cited 71 brain imaging studies showing murderers, psychopaths and violent individuals have reduced functioning in the prefrontal cortex (area of the brain involved in regulating emotion and controlling behaviour and moral behaviour. Lower activity in this area associated with impulsiveness and loss of control
- Seo et al 2008 - suggests low serotonin levels may predispose individual to impulsive aggression and criminal behaviour, serotonin normally inhibits prefrontal cortex, dopamine may enhance this
- Wright et al 2015 - Very high/low levels of noradrenaline associated with aggression, violence, and criminality, noradrenaline helps people react to perceived threats, low levels would reduce this ability
- Inherited personality
- Eysenck - proposed come people inherit types of behaviour that predispose them to behaving in a criminal way
- Genetic factors
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