BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS : GENETIC AND NEURAL

Question 1

genetic explanations of crime suggest

Answer 1

would be offenders ingerit a gene, or combo of genes taht predispose tehm to commit a crime

Question 2

importance of genes illustrated through

Answer 2

twin studies

Question 3

in terms of Twins and adoption studies who did christiansen study

Answer 3

over 3.5k twin pairs

in denmark

Question 4

what did christinasen find in his twin strudies

3 points

Answer 4

concordance rates for offender behaviour 35% MZ males

13% for DZ males

slightly lower rates for females

Question 5

CHristiansens study included tqwins born between

Answer 5

1880

1910

in a region of denamrk

Question 6

in christeansesn study the offender behaviour was checked against

Answer 6

danish police recvords

Question 7

offender behaviour was checked against poli records what did the data indicate

Answer 7

not jst behaviour that may be inherited

but the underlying predisposing traits

Question 8

what did crowe find in his adoption study

Answer 8

adopted kids , bio mother , have criminal record, 50% risk of having a crimnal record by 18

adopted kid , mum no crim record , got 5 % risk

Question 9

CANDIDATE GENES - genetic anlysis of * finnish offender found

Answer 9

800

two genes may be associated with violent crime

Question 10

CANDIDATE GENES - what were teh two genes thought to be associated with violent crim in the genetic analysis

Answer 10

MAOA
CDH13

Question 11

CANDIDATE GENES - what does MAOA gene do and has been linked to

Answer 11

regulate serotonin in brain

aggressive behaviour

Question 12

CANDIDATE GENES - what has CDH13 been linked to

Answer 12

substance abuse

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Question 13

CANDIDATE GENES - what did the genetic analysis find

Answer 13

5-10% of all sever violent crime in findland is attributed to MAOA and CDH13 genotypes

Question 14

DIATHESIS STRESS MODEL - if genetics have influence on offending , it seems likely this may be partly moderated by

Answer 14

effects of the enviro

Question 15

DIATHESIS STRESS MODEL - how may a tendency towards offending behaviour come about

Answer 15

combo of genetic predisposition and a biological or psychologial trigger such as growing up in a dysfunctional enviro / ahving criminal role models

Question 16

NEURAL XPL - evidence suggests there may be * differenceas in brains of

Answer 16

neural differences

in breains of offenders compared to non offenders

Question 17

NEURAL XPL - much evidence of neural differences has involved individuals diagnosed with

Answer 17

Anti social Personality Disorder

Question 18

APD formerly known as

Answer 18

psychopathy

Question 19

what is APD associated with 2

Answer 19

reduced emotional responses

lack of empathyfor feelings of others

Question 20

apd is a condition that charcatersies many

Answer 20

convicted offenders

Question 21

PREFRONTAL CORTEX - rain conducted manys tudies of APD brain - what did he report

Answer 21

theres several dozen brain imagign studies showing

individuals with APD have reduced activity in prefrontal cortex

Question 22

what is prefrontal cortex associatged with

Answer 22

part of brain that regulates emotional behaviour

Question 23

alongside finding reduced activity in prefrontal cortex what else did raine find

Answer 23

11% reduction in ovlueme of grey matter in prefrontal cortex of people with APD compared to controls

Question 24

MIRROR NEURONS - What does recent research suggest

Answer 24

offenders with APD can experinece empathy but do so more sporadically than the rest of us

Question 25

MIRROR NEURONS - what did keysers find and how

Answer 25

only when offedners were asked to empathise (with a person on film xp pain)

did their empathy reaction (controleld by mirror neurons in brain) activate

Question 26

MIRROR NEURONS - what does keysers study suggest

Answer 26

APD indi not totally without empathy

but may have a neural switch that can be turned on and off

unlike normal brain which has empathy switch permanently on

Question 27

eval - bio deterministic

Answer 27

criminaality too complex to reduce to genetic or neural level

lots of thing seem to run in families such as poverty and social deprevation

therfore difficult to disentagle oall of possible influences on offending behaviour

furthermore CR in twin studies never 100% - meaning enviro factors may be at least parlty responsible for criminal behaviour
so for example diathesis tress model could be better explanation for criminal behaviour where CR for MZ twins not 100%

Question 28

strength - gentic explanations - diathesis stress model - research support

Answer 28

researchers did study on over 13,000 adoptees

foun when neither the biological nor adoptive parents had convictions the % of adoptees that did was 13.5 %

found when either of bio parents did went up to 20%

wennt up to 25% when both parents had a conviction

shows genetic inheritance plays an important role but environmental influence cannot be disregarded
providing support for diathesis stress model of crime

Question 29

weakness - twin studies- limitation assumption of equal enviro

Answer 29

studies tend to asume twins raised in equal enviro as twins generally raised together limitation

however could apply to much more to MZ than DZ twins

as people - ptclry parents tend to treat MZ twins more similarly than DZ

This therfore impacts behaviour

so higher CR could be result of them being treated same rather than due to genetics - which is a confounding variable for this research

Question 30

weakness - adoption studies

Answer 30

presumed seperation of genetic and enviro influences (- whihc is whole point of adoption studies )complicated by fact many kids xp late adoption so much of childhood could have been spent with bio parents anyway

similarly lots of adoptees maintain reg conctat with bio parents following adoption

this makes it difficult to assess the relative impact of biology on offending behaviour

therfore assessing relative impact of nature/nurture may only be possible with very early adoptions where contact with biological relatives dont occur oherwise contact with bio relatives is a confounding varibales

Question 31

STRENGTH NEURAL XPL - research support - brain evidenc

Answer 31

one strength of the neural explanation is support for the link between crime and frontal lobe

Kandel and Freed reviewed evidence of frontal lobe damage and antisocial behaviour

people with such damage tended to show impulsive behaviour, emotional instability and an inability to learn from their mistakes

the frontal lobe is associated with planning behaviour

this supports the idea that brain damage may be causal factor in offending behaviour

Question 32

limitation - neural - intervening variables

Answer 32

one limitation of the neural explanation is the link between neural differences and APD may be complex

other factors may contribute to APD, and ultimately to offending

Farrington et al studied a group of men who scored high on psychopathy (APD)

these men had experience various risk factors during childhood, such as being raised by a convicted parent and being physically neglected

it’s possible that these early childhood experiences cause APD and also some of the neural differences associated with it - such as reduced anxiety in the frontal lobe due to trauma

this suggests that relationship between neural differences , APD and offending is complex and there may be other intervening variables that have an impact