Lesson 4 – Genetic and Neural Explanations Flashcards
What does the genetic explanation for crime suggest?
Genetic explanations for crime suggest that would-be offenders inherit a gene 🧬 or combination of 🧬 that predisposes them to commit crime
Which psychologist conducted an experiment to investigate the genetic explanation of crime?
Lange (1930)
What did Lange do to investigate the genetic explanation of crime and what did he find?
Lange (1930)- investigated 13 monozygotic (identical) 👯♀️ and 17 dizygotic (non-identical) 👯♀️
At least 1 of 👯♀️ in each pair served time in prison
10/13 pairs of monozygotic 👯♀️- both spent time in prison
2/17 pairs of dizygotic 👯♀️- both spent time in prison
What does polygenic mean in the context of criminal behaviour?
Criminal 🏃♂️ could be polygenic- means ✖️ 1 single gene is for offending- instead many 🧬 responsible for causing criminal 🏃♂️ (known as candidate 🧬)
Which study looked into the specific genes potentially responsible for criminal behaviour?
Tilhonen et al. (2014)- conducted genetic analysis of over 900 Finnish offenders- revealed abnormalities of 2 🧬 potentially associated with violent crime:
1) MAOA 🧬- controls dopamine and serotonin in 🧠- linked to aggressive 🏃♂️
2) CDH13 🧬 - linked to substance abuse and attention deficit disorder (✖️ maintain attention … ✖️ concentrate … ✖️ do well in school … ⬆️ likely to resort to crime
Within Finnish sample individuals with this ⬆️-risk combination of genes were 13 times ⬆️ likely to have history of violent 🏃♂️ compared to control group
What is the diathesis stress model?
Holds that genetics influence criminal 🏃♂️ BUT ALSO moderated by effects of environment
… tendency towards criminal 🏃♂️ may come through combination of genetic predisposition and biological or psychological triggers e.g. being raised in a dysfunctional environment
What is the neural explanation to criminal behaviour?
Evidence suggests there may be neural differences in 🧠 of criminals compared with non-criminals- diagnosed criminals with anti-social personality disorder (APD) (associated with ⬇️ emotional responses and lack of empathy … ✖️ feel guilty for actions- characterises many convicted criminals)
What evidence is there to support the neural explanation for criminal behaviour?
Several dozen 🧠-imaging studies- demonstrate that individuals with anti-social personalities have ⬇️ activity in pre-frontal cortex of 🧠(regulates emotional 🏃♂️ )
Raine et al. (2000)- found an 11% reduction ⬇️ in volume of grey matter in prefrontal cortex of ppl with APD compared to control group
What has recent study suggested about criminals with APD?
Recent research suggested that criminals with APD experience empathy BUT ⬆️ sporadically than rest of us
Keysers et al. (2011)- found that only when criminals asked to empathise (with person on film experiencing pain) did their empathy reaction (controlled by mirror neurons in 🧠) activate- suggests that APD individuals are ✖️ totally without empathy but may have neural switch that needs to be turned on in order to experience it- in normal 🧠 empathy switch permanently switched on
What are the evaluation points for genetic and neural explanations?
👎- concordance rates in MZ twins are ✖️ ⬆️ and leave plenty of room for non-genetic environmental factors- ALSO concordance rates may be due to shared learning experiences rather than 🧬
👎- 🧠 scanning studies (such as Raine et al., 2000) show pathology in 🧠 of criminal psychopaths BUT ✖️ conclude whether these abnormalities genetic 🧬 or signs of early abuse
👎- genetic and neural explanation of criminal 🏃♂️ is example of biological reductionism- criminality complex and explanations that reduce offending 🏃♂️ to a 🧬 or imbalanced neurotransmitter inappropriate and overly simplistic
Criminal 🏃♂️ does seem to run in families BUT so does emotional instability, mental illness, social deprivation and poverty- ALSO twin studies never show 100% concordance rates in monozygotic (MZ) twins … 🧬 cannot be only explanation for criminal 🏃♂️
👎- genetic and neural explanation of criminal 🏃♂️ example of biological determinism- dilemma for legal system as if someone has a criminal 🧬 they ✖️ have personal and moral responsibility for crime … unethical to punish someone who ✖️ have free will
