Biological Expl. for Criminal Behaviour

Question 1

Amygdala

3

Answer 1

LHS inhibits aggressive response
RHS excites aggressive response

Increased activity in the RHS would lead to increased impulsive aggression, same with decreased activity in the LHS (as shown by Raine et Al. 1997)

Damage / poor development in the amygdala leads to issues with fear condition. Children may fail to learn the negative consequences of anti-social behaviour. Could lead to criminal behaviour as no fear of being caught i.e. Raine (1990)

Question 2

Raine et Al (1990)

Answer 2

Fear response in 1,795 toddlers

Measured the toddlers fear response to a loud buzzer using electrodes (increases validity as is objective)
Looked at criminal statistics 20 years later, those who had committed crimes were more likely to have shown NO fear response in the experiment. May commit crime as they have less fear response to the consequences of crime. He put this down to abnormal amygdala functioning.

Question 3

Amygdala as reason for criminal behaviour eval.

Answer 3

Pros
Raine et Al. (1997) [Lower glucose activity in left amygdala, more in right]

Raine et Al. (1990) [Toddlers who showed less fear response to loud buzzer more likely to be criminals]

Pardini (2013) [Lower amygdala volumes more likely to be aggressive than normal size]

Charles Whitman

Cons
Amygdala works in tandem with many other brain structures (Pre-Frontal cortex), thus hard to isolate the amygdala as the prime reason for aggression

Correlational. Different amygdala activity may be due to the crime etc.

Question 4

Brain Injury

4

Answer 4

2 types of brain injury, ABI and TBI. ABI is any brain injury that develops after birth (not hereditary). TBI is a brain injury that comes from an injury to the head, such as the motorcycle accident of KF.

can come from drug abuse & stroke, but most commonly Trauma (TBI)

Cognitive abilities such as impulse control are one of the last to develop. An ABI (Acquired Brain Injury) could disrupt brain development and could stop the person moving past the reckless behaviour associated with childhood

Williams found that 8.5% of the population have a TBI, yet 60% of young males in a UK prison have a TBI

Question 5

Brain Injury as explanation for criminality eval.

Answer 5

Pros
Fazel (2011)
Williams

Cons
Confounding variables. People who sustain brain injuries are more likely to experience mental illness, drug abuse etc. and these factors could be the reason for criminal behaviour

Question 6

Fazel (2011)

Answer 6

Used the Swedish population register, found 8.8% of the group with ABI had committed a crime, compared to 3% of those without

Question 7

XYY

Answer 7

When a human male has an extra chromosome

Thought to make men more aggressive and have less empathy

More likely to be taller and lower IQ

Question 8

Jacobs (1965)

Answer 8

Found that there was an overpopulation of XYY males in prisons compared to general population (15:1000 Vs 1:1000)

Question 9

Stocholm (2012)

Answer 9

161 XYY males

Significant increase in number of crimes compared to XY

However, when Stocholm controlled for contributing factors such as education, fatherhood and relationships he found there was little difference

Concluded that the increased crimes was due t to a higher likelihood of poor socio-economic factors rather than the gene itself

Question 10

XYY as a reason for criminality eval.

Answer 10

Pros -
Jacobs (1965)

Cons -
Stocholm (2012)

Re & Birkhoff (2015) - looked at 50 years of XYY research and found no link between XYY and offending. Similar to stocholm, the overpopulation in prison is due to higher likelihood of poor socio-economic factors

Question 11

SODA for Biological Explanation for Criminal Behaviour

Answer 11

S - Fazel (2011) supports brain injury as reason for offending. Swedish population register found 8.8% of ABI had committed a crime, compared to 3% of General Population. However there are confounding variables e.g. Those with brain injury more likely to experience mental illness or drug abuse, these could be the reason for more offending

O - Raine (1990) found that the criminals in 20 years were more likely to have been toddlers who showed no fear response to loud buzzer. Pardini (2013) and Whitman also used. Con is that amygdala works in tandem with Pre-frontal cortex so hard to isolate amygdala as the cause.

A - New ways to assess criminal culpability. Williams says that neural injury should be viewed same as mental health in court and should be considered when sentencing