1. Raine et al 1997

Question 1

Background and aim (3 things)

Answer 1

Raine et al. investigated the brains of murderers who pleaded not guilty for reasons of insanity (NGRI) using positron emission tomography (PET) scans to see whether they have brain abnormalities.

If significant differences could be found between glucose metabolism patterns in the brains of such individuals compared to non-murderers, it may indicate that murderers (pleading NGRI) are more prone to violence than non-murderers.

PET scans show us which areas of the brain are most active (through orange and red colours) and which are least active (blue and green colours).
Until this study, no previous brain imaging had been conducted in this area.

Question 2

Pre-frontal cortex – what does it do

Answer 2

in a healthy brain this brain region will inhibit aggressive impulses

Question 3

Corpus callosum – what does this do

Answer 3

in a healthy brain this allows the left hemisphere to moderate emotional impulses from the right

Question 4

Limbic system , Hippocampus, Amygdala

Answer 4

Problems with these structures may cause a lack of inhibition for violent behaviour, fearlessness and a failure to learn the negative effects of violence.

Question 5

Method: (type of experiment/IV/DV/experimental design)

Answer 5

• A quasi experiment was conducted because the IV, a NGRI murderer or a ‘normal’, non-murderer, was not manipulated.
• The DV was whether the participant showed evidence of brain dysfunction in the aforementioned areas of the brain.
• The experimental design was matched pairs, with matching occurring on age, gender and diagnosis of schizophrenia in 6 members of each group.

Question 6

Sample: (4 points)

Answer 6

• Experimental group: 39 men and 2 women (mean age of 34.3 years).
  -All from California
• All had been charged with either murder or manslaughter, and had been referred to the UCI imaging centre to find out if they were NGRI.
• 6 had schizophrenia.

Question 7

Procedure: (4 points)

Answer 7

• Offenders were in custody for two weeks and were kept medication free before brain scanning; none of the controls were taking medication either.
• Participants were firstly given practice trials on a
  (CPT) in which targets need to be searched for and a button pressed when they are found to activate the pre-frontal cortex in the brain.
• 30 seconds before the FDG injection they started the real CPT
• Then 32 minutes later they were transferred to an adjacent PET scanner room where their brain was scanned 10 times at 10mm intervals to measure activity in different regions of the brain

Question 8

Results (6 Brain structures - The murderers metabolic activity level - Its interpretaion

Answer 8

Question 9

Conclusions (5 of them)

Answer 9

• Murderers pleading NGRI have significant differences in the metabolism of glucose in a number of brain areas compared to non-murderers.
• This reduced activity in the prefrontal areas may explain impulsive behaviour, a loss of self control, evidence of immaturity, altered emotionality and the inability to modify behaviour. All of these may make it easier to carry out different kinds of aggressive acts because the normal constraints on behaviour may be reduced.
• The neural processes which underlie violent behaviour can’t simply be reduced to a single brain mechanism that causes violence. It seems there are several processes involved and if there are deficits in a number of these processes, the likelihood of violent behaviour occurring is much greater.
• The results do NOT show that violent behaviour is determined by biology alone. There are a number of other factors which must be taken into account.
  Social experiences, situational factors, psychological predispositions and learned responses will all have their part to play.

Question 10

Evaluation points you could be asked on?(11 things)

Answer 10

Nature/nurture
Freewill/determinism
Reductionism/holism
Individual/situational explanations
Usefulness of research
Ethical considerations Sampling bias.
Conducting socially sensitive research
Psychology as a science
Ethnocentrism
Validity
Reliability

Question 11

Crib sheet - what does each evaluation point entail

Answer 11

Question 12

b) Discuss methodological issues involved when researching what makes a criminal (15 marks)

You need 3 clear PEEC paragraphs here – you don’t have to just use Raine - think about the 4 pieces of research we have used:
You can also use Dabbs, Gesch, Farrington and West think about their methodological issues

Answer 12

Point – methodological issue
One methodological issue is the sample which is often androcentric

Explain – what does the issue mean – give an example
This means that the samples used to study criminals are often just based on males and therefore cannot be generalised back to the population as a whole

Evidence – use one of the pieces of research to back this point up
This is evidence through Dabbs research into male prisoners and testosterone levels. There were 692 males in the study who had committed both violent and property crimes. This means that the study can only be applied to males

Contrast – in contrast is there another study that doesn’t do this?
However the sample is large and can therefore be considered to have good generalisability to male offenders. Moreover the majority of people in prison are males (96% of the prison population) so it makes sense to study just males

Do this 2 more times

Question 13

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Answer 13