The Biological Approach to Explaining Offending Behaviour Flashcards
Outline lange’s research.
-Studied 13 MZ and 17 DZ twins.
-10 MZ and 2 DZ twins had spent time in prison.
-Found that if one MZ twin is a criminal, it is likely that the other twin will commit criminal behaviour.
What research supports Lange’s?
Christiansen: Found a concordance rate of 33 percent for MZ twins and 12 percent for DZ twins.
What are the 2 genes responsible for criminal behaviour?
MAOA and CDH13
What is the prefrontal cortex responsible for?
Emotions and morals.
What is the limbic system responsible for?
Emotions and motivation.
How does damage to different structures of the brain affect criminality? What case study shows this?
-Damage to prefrontal cortex and limbic systems can result in problems developing an understanding of moral behaviour.
-In adulthood, individuals may be unable to control inappropriate behaviour.
Phineas Gage: survived an iron rod accident which damaged limbic structures of his brain.
Personality changed - began behaving inappropriately and violently.
What are mirror neurons?
-Neurones which fire when you do an action or see someone else do an action.
-Helps us understand the actions of others.
How do the mirror neurons of criminals work?
-Criminals may have an impaired mirror neuron system.
-For empathy reactions, mirror neurons will only activate when criminals are asked to sympathise.
(Keysers et al)
Outline the diathesis stress model.
-Describes how environmental factors impact genes.
-Explains gene - environment interaction.
-Caspi et al: 12 percent of 1000 people with low MAOA genes were maltreated as children.
Give one strength of the genetic/neural explanation for criminal behaviour?
- Supports nature side of nature vs nurture debate.
28 males from a Dutch family with a past of impulsive and criminal behaviour all shared MAOA gene that led to low levels of serotonin/ other neurotransmitters making them likely criminals.
Strength as it shows, violent criminal behaviour can be inherited.
What are two weaknesses of the genetic/neural explanation of criminality?
1.P: Ignores free will.
E: Research does not explain why some people with genes associated with criminality do not commit crime.
Tiihonen et al - those with a defective gene were 13 times more likely to have a history of violent criminal behaviour but, not everyone with the defective gene became an offender.
E: Weakness as approach assumes everyone with abnormalities in genes such as MAOA will inevitably become an offender.
Poor methodology in twins studies.
Confounding variable: being brought up in same environment.
Shows research lascks control
