Neural offending explanation Flashcards
what is antisocial personality disorder (APD) associated with
reduced emotional responses and lack of empathy. No remorse
what are traits of psychopaths
impulsive, manipulative and self centred
outline research into the PFC and the loss of control over impulses
Raine found several dozen brain-imagine studies to show APD brains to have reduced PFC activity. Found an 11% reduction in grey matter volume of APD patients
what’re mirror neurons
they fire when we see people do a specific behaviour, allowing us to feel as if we are doing it too.
what example may cause mirror neurons to fire
seeing someone cry, ‘feeling their pain’ - empathy, absence of in psychopaths, explaining criminal behaviour
what do mirror neurons suggest about APD
APD criminals experience empathy more sporadically, research suggests that APD persons aren’t void of empathy but may have a ‘switch’, unlike the ‘normal’ brain with it on always
a positive eval of neural
researching people with FL damage, including PFC, finding evidence of impulsive behaviour, emotional instability and inability to learn from mistakes.
supports the idea that structural brain changes are a factor in causing offending
what’re 2 negative evals for neural
intervening variables
biological determinism
how are intervening variables a limitation of neural
other contributing factors, study of men with high psychopathy score having experienced various childhood risk factors, eg, convicted parent or physical neglect. may explain neural differences such as reduced FL activity from trauma.
relationship between neural differences, APD and offending is complex and may be more variables
how is neural explanation biologically deterministic
if true, we could identify a criminal gene/broken neural structure causing criminality. big issue for ethics, justice system and parents. a determining factor means criminals have no free will in their behaviour.
question of what does society do with people carrying the genes, and it’s affect on sentencing.
