forensics - genetical and neural explanations

Question 1

who did researchers of neural explanations for criminality specifically look at?

Answer 1

sufferers of anti-social personality disorder

Question 2

what is APD?

Answer 2

anti-social personality disorder - reduced emotion, impulsive and lack of empathy

Question 3

function of prefrontal cortex

Answer 3

regulates emotional behaviour

Question 4

how has activity in the prefrontal cortex been linked to criminality

Answer 4

brain scans have shown that criminals have reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex

Question 5

what did Raine find?

Answer 5

11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex of people with APD vs people without

Question 6

what are mirror neurons?

Answer 6

Mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that allow us to understand peoples emotions and actions. Even allowing us to stimulate an appropriate response to a persons actions.

you dont have to think about what a persons actions mean you just know effortlessly because of these neurons.

Question 7

how are mirror neurons involved in empathy?

Answer 7

mirror neurons are involved in social cognition allowing us to interpret intention and emotion in others allowing u to empathies

Question 8

how do people with APD experience empathy

Answer 8

sporadically - it is like a switch tha turns on and off

Question 9

what did keysers find?

Answer 9

only when offenders were asked to empathize they did, empathy only took place when activated by mirror neurons. This suggests they have a switch between empathy states when ‘normal’ brain is always on.

Question 10

evaluate neural explanation of offending behaviour

Answer 10

• keysers
• raine
• biologically reductionist
• alternative explanations

Question 11

what does genetical explanation suggest?

Answer 11

criminal behaviour is predisposed by genes

Question 12

what are twin studies?

Answer 12

look at concordance rates between MZ AND DZ

Question 13

what is an adoption study?

Answer 13

adoption studies look at the adopted childs behaviour and see if it is similar to their biological parents. If it is this suggests a genetical influence because they are not in the same environment as them.

Question 14

what was crhristiansons research?

Answer 14

found concordance rates of 33% for MZ and 12% for DZ in offending behaviour

Question 15

what was tiihonen research?

Answer 15

analysed 900 offenders jeans and found that 2 had abnormalities involved in crime

Question 16

what genes are in crime?

Answer 16

MAOA
CDH13

Question 17

what is the MAOA gene?

Answer 17

controls serotnin and dopamine and has been lined to agressive behaviour

Question 18

what is CDH13 gene?

Answer 18

associated with substance abuse and ADHD

Question 19

how do male and female MAOA genes differ?

Answer 19

males have one whilst women have two

Question 20

why does the MAOA gene make sense?

Answer 20

Because males are more likely to commit crime because they less MAOA genes and are more agressive

Question 21

what is the diathesis stress model?

Answer 21

it acknowledges that whilst crime has a biological disposition the enviroment also has a as a role in criminal behaviour.

crime is biology + psychology/enviromental trigger

Question 22

example of trigger for crime

Answer 22

criminal role models or dysfunctional family

Question 23

what was mednicks research?

Answer 23

police records of 13,000 danish adoptees

13.5% crime with no parents criminal
20% when biological criminal
24% when adoptive and biological criminal

supports diathese stress model

Question 24

what are the problems with twin studies?

Answer 24

usually small sample
also unsual in themselves cannnot be generalised
most twins in the same enviroment
may act as a confoudning variable AS CONCORDANCE RATES MY BE A RESULT PF SHARED EXPERIENCES RATHER THAN GENETICS

Question 25

problems with adoption studies?

Answer 25

lack of control

late adoption, still contact with biological family

hard to know how much effect effect the biological family had

cannot be sure genetics is the case not valid,

Question 26

WHO FOUND THAT MAOA AAND CDH13 GENE MAY BE ASSOCIATED WITH CRIME?

Answer 26

TIIHONEN.

Question 27

what was Tiihonens research?

Answer 27

• genetic analysis of around 900 offenders
• abnormalaties with the genes maoa and cdh13
• offenders with this high risk genetic combination were 13x more likeley to have a history of violent behaviour

Question 28

summary AO1 of genetic explanation for crime

Answer 28

1) twin studies - Christianson
2) adoption studies
3) Candidate genes - Tiihonen
4) Diatheses stress model

Question 29

evaluate genetical explanations

Answer 29

• research support from Christianson
• problems with twin studies - cant completely separate
• reductionist
• alternative explanation

Question 30

what are family studies?

Answer 30

are studies of whether a disease or trait “runs in a family”. In other words, they are studies aimed at detecting if having a family history of a certain behaviour or illness is associated with greater risk.