Biological Understanding of Criminal Behaviour

Biological Psychology tends to look at the causes of aggression as this is likely to lead to anti-social behaviour, including crime.

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What is a brain injury?
Brain Injury can be the result of a trauma to the brain due to an accident or it can be the result of illness or long term substance/alcohol abuse.
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What is the significance of brain injuries in relation to criminal behaviour?
The consequences of a brain injury - depending on the area of the brain effected - can be an altering in personality and behavior, possibly resulting in agressive/anti-social behaviour which could lead to the individual commiting acts of crime.
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What examples are there of Brain Injury inducing criminal behaviour in an individual?
PHINEAS GAGE (1884) - An accident resulted in him suffering trauma to his frontal lobe and cordate nucleus. As a result of this his personality utterly altered and friends described him as a different man.
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What are the limitations of Phineas Gage's case study as evidence?
As it is a case study, the experience he suffered and the evidence he provides is not representative of other people and its difficult to gage whether the result of his trauma is based solely on the injury or psychological implications.
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What does this suggest about the biological explanation?
That it may be litimited in explaining criminal behaviour as it is dangerous and un-reliable to make conclusions based on individual case studies. (IDEOGRAPHIC).
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What other evidence supports the Biological Explanation in relation to the brain?
WILLIAMS ET AL.(2010) - 60% of 196 prisioners had some form of traumatic brain injury; arguably implying that these injuries affect social judgement and impulsive behaviour, also closely link to risk taking.
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What does Williams et al.'s findings suggest?
It suggests that impairment in these areas of the brain could contribute to criminaliry as the knock on affects of it make it more likey for them to be involved in anti-social behaviour.
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What does this suggest about the Biological Explanation?
As the data from Williams et al.'s study is nomothetic it is trying to make wider generaltions and supports the idea that the brain can play a significant part in criminality and its reasons.
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What is a major issue of using Brain Injury as evidence?
The co-morbidity factor; many offenders often have a history of substance abuse/missuse which could bring about mental illness rather than it stand alone being a result of brain impairement.
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How does the Amygdala play a part in the biological explanation of criminality?
Because it is responsible for controlling human emotions and therefore damage to it can result in an alteration in an individuals ability to regulate emotions appropriatley. Brain scans have indicated that psychopaths have a smaller amygdala.
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What case study supports the significance of the amgydala?
CHARLES WHITMAN- murdered family and then shot and killed a dozen of people in a killing spree, before taking his own life, Whitman was found to have a brain tumour the size of a pecan nut pressing on his amygdala.
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How does Raine et al.'s Study (1997) support the relationship between brain structure?
Concluding that reduced activity in the pre-frontal areas may explain impulsive behaviour, a loss of self-control and altered emotionality, when he used PET scans to uncover whether murderers (NGRI) had brain abnormalities.
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What is a strength of Raine's reasearch in supporting this paticular explanation?
A positive of his resreach is that he used PET scans which is scientific and objective, making it a credible piece of evidence to support the link between brain structure and agression and criminality.
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What is a limitation of Raine's research?
Its possible that thre are many people out there that have killed and dont have a defect in their brain structure - however Raine's study only looked at murderers that had been caught.
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What can conclusions can we draw from this?
Evidence such as that of Sham Rage can support the notion that the amgydala and its responsbility it regulation emotions and any damage it suffers can result in lack of/excessivness of emotion and in turn lead to extreme agression levels.
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What are the limitations?
SHAM RAGE- despite it being scientific, the evidence is based on animals (cats) therefore limitating the ability to generalise the findings to humans due to our capabilty of higher order thinking.
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What information do BABIAK & HARE (2006) offer in relation to this argument?
Found that not all psychopaths become criminals, which contrasts the idea that it is down to brainstructe solely. Certain careers are suited to people with psychopathic characteristics.
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Card 2

Front

What is the significance of brain injuries in relation to criminal behaviour?

Back

The consequences of a brain injury - depending on the area of the brain effected - can be an altering in personality and behavior, possibly resulting in agressive/anti-social behaviour which could lead to the individual commiting acts of crime.

Card 3

Front

What examples are there of Brain Injury inducing criminal behaviour in an individual?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What are the limitations of Phineas Gage's case study as evidence?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What does this suggest about the biological explanation?

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