Forensics- NEURAL EXPLANATIONS

Question 1

Strength, hamburger

PFC RESEARCH

Answer 1

There is research support that individuals with antisocial personalities have reduced activity in their prefrontal cortex.
Raine et al (2000) found an 11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex of people with antisocial personality disorder compared to controls.
This increases the validity of the explanation as it suggests that there are neural differences in the brains of criminals and non-criminals.

Question 2

Support, Hamburger

MIRROR NEURON RESEARCH

Answer 2

There is evidence to support that criminals with APD can experience empathy.
Keysers et al (2011) found that only when criminals were asked to empathise with a person depicted on a film experiencing pain did their empathy reaction, controlled by mirror neurons in the brain, activate.
This suggests that APD individuals do have some empathy but may have a neural ‘switch’ that can be turned on and off, unlike “normal” brains where empathy is permanently turned on.

Question 3

Limitation, hamburger

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Answer 3

Some of the research into neurophysiology is often correlational, which means that there is no clear way to show cause and effect.
For example, found in Raine et al. (2000), could be a cause of offending behaviour or the result of some environmental factor, which in turn makes them more likely to become a criminal.
This matters because it highlights the complexity of the relationship between biology and behaviour and suggests that further investigation is required.

Question 4

Limitation, hamburger

BIOLOGICALLY REDUCTIONIST

Answer 4

The neural explanations of offending are biologically reductionist.
It focuses on dysfunctional brain areas such as the prefrontal cortex and mirror neurons in order to explain criminal behaviour.
However, criminality is complex, and it may be inappropriate and overly simplistic to only focus on biology in offending behaviour.

Question 5

Limitation, Double whopper

BIOLOGICALLY DETERMINISTIC

Answer 5

The neural explanations are biologically deterministic.
Impaired functioning in the prefrontal cortex and mirror neurons has been linked to offending.
This suggests that criminal behaviour is beyond the control of the individual.
But this is problematic because our legal system is based on criminals having personal and moral responsibility which raises ethical questions about how criminals should be treated.