application: biological strategies for preventing criminal behaviour

Question 1

What do primary crime prevention strategies aim to do?

Answer 1

identify children at risk of, or having multiple factors for, antisocial and criminal behaviour

Question 2

What are the different types of crime prevention?

Answer 2

1. health and nutrition programmes
2. biologically focused intervention

Question 3

What are health and nutrition programmes?

Answer 3

aimed at pregnant women - reduce anti-social behaviour in offspring

Question 4

What are examples of biosocial risk factors for antisocial and criminal behaviour?

Answer 4

• children of mothers who smoke during pregnancy
• birth complications
• poor nutrition of a mother during pregnancy
• early maternal care

Question 5

What did Raine do to test biologically focused intervention?

Answer 5

• 100/1795 child participants
• low resting heart rate
• 3 part intervention programme of enrichment

Question 6

What were the 3 parts to Raine’s intervention programme?

Answer 6

1. nutrition
2. physical exercise
3. cognitive stimulation

Question 7

What were the results of Raine’s intervention programme?

Answer 7

children in the intervention
- less cruel to others and less likely to pick fights
- could focus their attention better than controls
- had more mature brains

Question 8

Who did Raine’s study have the biggest impact on?

Answer 8

those who had initially been poorly nourished - showed a 52.6% reduction in conduct disorder at 17 compared to controls

Question 9

How much did Raine’s intervention reduce crime by?

Answer 9

35%

Question 10

What does reducing crime by 35% suggest?

Answer 10

• there is some free will to criminal behaviour - people still commit crimes if they just want to
• reductionist - oversimplifies criminal behaviour: there are other factors that impact criminal behaviour e.g., criminal role models, traumas, and peer pressure

Question 11

What is the key vitamin that reduces antisocial behaviour?

Answer 11

omega three

Question 12

What are the two biological strategies?

Answer 12

1. neural scanning
2. chemical castration

Question 13

What is neural scanning?

Answer 13

shows the metabolic activity in different parts of the brain

Question 14

What are the preventions of crime for neural scanning?

Answer 14

• scanning criminals upon release - prevents re-offending
• pre-emptively locking up
• scans / screenings in schools & GPs

Question 15

What is chemical castration?

Answer 15

taking medication to reduce testosterone to pre-pubescent levels

Question 16

What are the preventions of crime for chemical castration?

Answer 16

NOT an alternative to jail time - end of sentence treatment - especially for sex offenders to reduce the chance of reoffending