Explanations of crime and anti-social behaviour Flashcards
Williams et al (2010) found…
60% of the 196 prisoners they investigated had some form of traumatic brain injury, e.g. falling, sports head injury, car accidents
drunkenness impairs the functioning of the cerebellum - linked to movement - so may cause… and affects the pre-frontal cortex, leading to…
…falls and accidents, which might result in brain injury… …leading to impulsive behaviour, lack of impulse control and so increases
why is correlation between brain injury and criminality not necessarily causal?
other factors may co-exist - comorbidity, e.g. many offenders have a history of drug abuse and may have pre-existing personality disorders, or been exposed to violence as a child - all factors known to increase risk of criminality
what is brain localisation?
different areas of the brain are linked to different functions
damage to the amygdala may result in…
an increase in impulsivity, irritability or aggression
Williams et al (2010) concluded that…
impairment in the brain regions affected by the trauma could have contributed to criminality
why were Kreutzer et al (1991) unable to categorically prove or disprove a causal connection between traumatic brain injury and violence?
their investigation of 74 patients found that 20% had been arrested pre-injury and 10% post-injury
in subsequent research, Kreutzer et al (1995) concluded that…
without the presence of a substance abuse history, traumatic brain injury was not a risk factor for criminal behaviour
what is the amygdala responsible for and what would damage to this area cause?
responsible for controlling emotions - hence damage to this area may result in very limited emotional responses or excessive reactions to emotional stimuli due to an inability to control or regulate emotional responses
what is a psychopath?
psychopaths have reduced to no emotional responses to situations or events that would provoke an emotional response in a non-psychopath
who is Robert Hare?
a psychologist who is an authority on psychopaths and had developed a psychopath checklist or scale
what does the book “Snakes in suits: When psychopaths go to work” by Babiak and Hare (2006) demonstrate?
how psychopaths are not just found among the criminal population
who did Pardini et al (2014) find to have smaller amygdalae than controls?
psychopaths, as well as those with higher than average levels of aggression
what does “sham rage” refer to?
Cannon and Britton (1925) coined this term to describe an emotional state in animals
what did the Raine et al (1997) study show?
significant differences in the brain structure of murderers compared to non-murderers, especially in the functioning of the amygdala
what did Glenn et al (2009) study?
the neural circuitry underpinning amygdala functioning, not just the size of the amygdala, using fMRI scanning
what did Glenn et al (2009) find?
psychopaths tended to have reduced amygdala functioning during moral decision-making, suggesting deficits in brain regions linked to moral reasoning, so psychopaths would worry less about causing pain to others
what did Narabayashi et al (1963) do?
carried out psycho surgery on human patients with aggressive behaviour, severing their amygdala from the rest of the limbic system, resulting in a mood-stabilising effect in the majority of patients over time
how is diathesis-stress related to environment?
environment (i.e. external stress) can have an impact, or mediate the effects of diathesis, i.e. a biological susceptibility or factors
not everyone with a smaller amygdala acts in an excessively aggressive, psychopathic way and not everyone who acts aggressively or without emotion is a psychopath, for example…
neurologist James Fallon in 2006 identified his own brain as a psychopathic brain, yet he does not exhibit criminal behaviour or tendencies
what did Danish researcher Alice Theilgaard (1984) note?
although there is a marginally higher rate of XYY men in the prison population than the general population, it is only very small and therefore cannot be the only reason for criminal behaviour amongst men, otherwise the proportion would be much higher
what did Stockholm et al (2012) suggest?
even when there is a link between XYY syndrome and criminality, it tends to come from unfavourable living conditions, not from genes
what did Re and Birkhoff (2015) conclude?
there is no statistical evidence to suggest that XYY syndrome predisposes males, just because of genotype, to aggressive and deviant behaviour
what did Brunner (1993) study?
a group of men in the same large family in the Netherlands and noted that all of them carried a faulty version of a gene responsible for the production of an enzyme called monoamine oxidase A (MAOA)
