Genetic And Neural Approach Flashcards
Who investigated twins? (Genetic)
Christiansen
Explain Christiansen’s findings and his sample
3500 twin pairs in Denmark, concordance rates for offending 35% MZ and 15% DZ. when checked against danish police records it indicated inherited traits.
What did Crowe find about adopted children?
Adopted children with criminal mother 50% risk to have a criminal record by 18
No criminal mother 5% risk
Explain the research into candidate genes (Tiihonen)
800 Finnish offenders
Two genes MAOA and CDH13 associated with violent crimes (MAOA aggression CDH13 associated with substance abuse)
5-10% of crimes in Finland due to these genotypes
Describe what is meant by the Diathesis Stress Model in terms of offending
Genetic effects of offending moderated by environment.
Offending behaviour is a mix of genetic, biological and psychological.
Usually activated from a psychological trigger eg. Dysfunctional family
Describe one limitation of genetic research (AO3)
Issues with twins
Assumptions of equal environments apply more to MZ twins than DZ twins as MZ look the same so treated the same.
Higher concordance rate for MZ may be down to similar treatment
Describe the support for DSM (AO3)
13000 danish adoptees (Meenick et al)
Biological and adoptive parents no convictions = 13.5% adoptive children had convictions
Rose to 20% when either biological or adoptive parent had a conviction
Rose to 24.5% when both biological parents had a conviction
What does neural evidence suggest about emotions? APD
Neural differences in brains, individuals with antisocial personality disorder have reduced emotions and lacks empathy
Describe Raines research into prefrontal cortex
APD brains have less activity in the prefrontal cortex (emotions)
11% reduction in volume of grey matter in APD
Explain mirror neurones/ the neural switch
Offenders with APD can experience empathy but more sporadically.
Keysers: only when asked to empathise did they. APD not totally without empathy but have a neural switch (normal brain always on)
Describe the evidence for brain damage (Neural) (AO3)
Kandel and Freed: reviewed evidence between frontal lobe damage and APD
With damage showed impulsive behaviour emotional instability and inability to learn from mistakes
(Frontal lobe = planning)
Describe one limitation of neural research (variables) (AO3)
Other factors may link to APD and offending.
Farmington et al: group of men whom scored highly on APD. These individuals had experienced various childhood risk factors eg. Neglect.
Relationship between genetics and environment = complex
