Genetic and Neural explanations - AO1

Question 1

What did Christianson (1977) do?

genetic

Answer 1

Studied over 3500 twin pairs in Denmark

• Foound concordance rates for offender behaviour: MZ = 35%, DZ = 13% (males)
• Included all twins born before 1880 and 1910 in region Denmark
• Offender behaviour checked against police records
• Not just behaviour inherited but underlying predispoosing traits

Question 2

What did Crowe (1972) find?

genetic

Answer 2

Foound adopted children whose biological mother had a criminal record had a 50% risk of one by age 18
Biological mother with no criminal record had a 5% risk

Question 3

What did Tiihonen et al (2015) do?

genetic

Answer 3

Genetic analysis of 800 Finnish offenders suggested genes MAOA and CDH13 is associated with violent crime
MAOA - regulates serotonin and is linked to aggressive behaviour
CDH13 - linked to substance abuse and ADHD

• Found 5-10% of all severe violent crime in Finland is attributable to the MAOA and CDH13 genotypes

Question 4

What is diathesis stress?

Answer 4

Tendency towards offending behaviour may come about through the combination of genetic predisposition and biological/psychological trigger

Question 5

What are neural explanations?

Answer 5

Evidence suggests there may be neural differences in the brains of offenders and non-offenders
Antisocial personality disorder - reduced emotional response and a lack of empathy

Question 6

What did Raine do?

Answer 6

Conducted many studies in the antisocial personality disorder brain
There are brain imaging studies demonstrating those with APD have reduced activity in the pre-frontal cortex

• Found an 11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in the pre-frontal cortex of people with APD comapared to controls

Question 7

What has recent research suggested about those with antisocial personality disorder?

Answer 7

Experience empathy but it is more sporadically than the rest of us

Question 8

What did Keysers (2011) find?

Answer 8

Only when asked to empathise with person in film in pain did their empathy reaction, controlled by mirror neurones in the brain, activate

• Suggests they are not without empathy but have a neural “switch” that can be turned on or off