Neural Explanation A03 Flashcards
1
Q
Brain evidence - strength - Elizabeth Mandela and David freed (1989)
A
- reviewed evidence of frontal lobe damage (including the prefrontal cortex and antisocial behaviour. People with such damage tended to show impulsive behaviour, emotional instability and an inability to learn from their mistakes.
- The frontal lobe is associated with planning behaviour.
- This supports the idea that brain damage may be a causal factor in offending behaviour.
2
Q
Intervening variables - limitation - David Farrington (2006)
A
- These individuals had experienced various risk factors during childhood, such as being raised by a convicted parent and being physically neglected. It could be that these early childhood experiences caused APD and also some of the neural differences associated with it
- such as reduced activity in the frontal lobe due to trauma (Rauch et al. 2006).
- This suggests that the relationship between neural differences, APD and offending is complex and there may be other intervening variables that have an impact.
3
Q
Biological determinism
A
The biological approach suggests that offending behaviour is determined by genetic/ neural factors which cannot be controlled by the person. So a person should not be held responsible for a crime.
However, our justice system is based on the notion that we all have responsibility for our actions. Only in extreme circumstances (e.g. mental disorder), is an individual judged to lack responsibility. The identification of possible biological precursors to crime complicates this principle.
