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Strengths and limitations of biological explanations of crime
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Adrian Raine, a renowned British psychologist, as taken to finding a explanation as to the cause of violent crimes and antisocial behavior in adults and children. After years of research that included brain imaging scanning and interviews, Raine has come to the conclusion that violent behavior is not solely based off of social environment but there is, in fact, a biological basis for all antisocial and violent behaviors (1:28). His book, The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime, outlines the studies has conducted and what the results of his experiments told him about the relationship between biology and violent crimes. In one of Raine’s studies, he put 41 convicted murders under a PET scanner, a medical imaging instrument use
The nurturing of individuals plays a role in the making of killers, as 94% of serial killers had experienced some form of abuse as children and 42% have suffered severe physical abuse (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2010). A child abuse is a determining factor, in which supports the idea that serial killers and psychopath, are influenced significantly by nurture (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2011). In most cases social, cultural and physiological determinants all play a role in influencing serial killers to grow into a mass murderer. It is important that physiological and social determinants can be identified, so they could be altered for the purpose of preventing the number of crime.
Many people argue whether violence is a part of the human brain or just a result from our society. Violence could be wired into our system, evolving with us since our savage past, but one does not know for sure.
Raine and his team continued to scan numerous murderers brains over the course of many years. They noticed a similarity between the brains such as overactivation of the amygdala, the area that generates and stimulates our emotions.They also found reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex, which is the area of the brain that monitors our emotional impulses. They came to the conclusion that a murderer has a brain that makes them impulsive and prone to rage. After being asked about his findings, Raine explained that the reason behind there being reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex most likely was caused by childhood abuse and damage cause by ruthless abuse. In general, the prefrontal cortex is extremely vulnerable, but especially when you are young and your brain has not grown to its hilt. Through the years of research and causal new findings only one caught the attention of Professor Raine. It was a gene that produced an enzyme called MAOA, better known as the Warrior Gene. Raine discovered that about 30% of men have this gene, but if it is triggered or not depends on the violence that occured when you were vulnerable and
Neihoff, D. (1999). The biology of violence: How understanding the brain, behavior and environment can break the vicious circle of aggression. New York: Free Press.
Raine, A. (2008). From genes to brain to antisocial behavior. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 323-329.
Human behavior correlates to biology; the anatomy of the brain is directly responsible for emotions and cognitive responses. To prove the correlation between mind and action, there are many studies done to analyze the way the brain reacts under certain tests. One of which was Adrian Raine’s 1997 experiment to find physiological differences between murderers and non-murderers.
Dr. Adrian Raine has found that violent criminal offenders have shown aggressive anti-social behavior in childhood. Dr. Raine, a professor of psychology at the University of Southern California, and a top researcher on crime and antisocial behavior, has written more than 100 articles and several books on the topic, including "The Biosocial Basis of Violence." His brain imaging studies on violent individuals shows malfunctioning of the prefrontal cortex, an area involved with the control of behavior.
John Wayne Gacy, Tim Bundy, and Ottis Toole are all infamous serial killers that suffered from a certain disorder. That disorder is called antisocial personality disorder. The biggest question that we have for these men is what triggered these non-empathetic men to commit such heinous crimes, was it mostly biology based or environment? Or do both factors share an equal amount of blame? When it comes to what is the exact cause of antisocial personality disorder, researchers and scientists are unable to come into an agreement. More or less, scientists agree that this personality disorder is caused by a combination of environmental and biological factors. While most scientists are able to agree what environmental conditions serve as precursors for a child to develop antisocial personality disorder characteristics in life, the problem continues to be what internal chemical imbalances are occurring to create this disorder. This ongoing question has been thrown to the public to ponder over for many years. At this time, there are no guarantee of wrong or completely right answers, but only theories to the causation of the disorder. By examining multiple biological theories, along with their fallacies (if any are presented) will we detect what the most probable cause is for this disorder.
Jan Volavka, M. P. (1999). The Neurobiology of Violence: An Update. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 11(3), 307-314.
In criminology, examining why people commit crime is critical in the ongoing debate of how crime should be handled and prevented. Biological, sociological and psychological theories of delinquency each have evidence to support their respective beliefs. Over the past century, the approach has tended to emphasize more the belief that offenders differ from non-offenders in some physiological way (Conklin, 1998, p. 146). This approach has offered a number of different explanations of delinquency, ranging from glandular malfunctions to learning disabilities, to racial heritage, to nutrition. Explanations for biological theories have gained credibility and there is a belief that biological and sociological theory may be partners in explaining crime
There are two biological theories suggested as explanations of violent crime in this article, they are as follow:
Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909), Raffaele Garofalo (1852–1934) and Enrico Ferri (1856–1929) indicated certain physical traits or characteristics explain the criminal behavior. Biosocial theory is about how criminal behavior is biological and psychological. The study says that the reason why individuals commit a crime is that they have some type of physical or psychological traits. During the 1970s and 1980s, the biology of crime was one of the focus and it was created to explain why criminal do not learn from their mistakes.
There are various theories within the biological explanation as to why individuals commit criminal behaviour, these include: genetic theory, hereditary theory, psychosis and brain injury theory. In the next few paragraphs examples of each will be shown.
To begin with, Biological theory is a conflict theory of crime causation. A biological theory is physical traits that leads an individual to commit a crime. Biological School is an important perspective in the biological theory. It suggests that criminal behavior is passed from generation to generation and that is results from biological tendencies. Physical traits can be a result of the nervous system. The nervous system allows a person to recognize actions that will cause a themselves harm and helps their brain function. Franz Joseph Gall came up with the idea of phrenology. Phrenology is the study of a person’s head that will affect their actions. An individual’s personality can be a result of how their facial expressions look. Every human
Unlike most behaviors, individual acts of escalated aggression and violence have the potential to impact society as a whole. Research from fruit flies to humans is helping to decipher the biological causes of these abnormal behaviors. This research promises to reveal new avenues of treatment and prevention in the years to come.