unit 2 biological theories of criminality - brain injuries and disorders

Question 1

brain injuries; key idea?

Answer 1

brain injury can change personality and are more common in prisoners

Question 2

what is the case study?

Answer 2

phineas gage - metal rod through the brain. survived but his personality became erratic

Question 3

disorders; key idea?

Answer 3

some brain diseases have been linked with criminal or anti-social behaviour. e.g dementia, brain tumours and huntington’s disease.

Question 4

what are the EEG readings?

Answer 4

some studies shows abnormal EEG readings in psychopathic criminals

Question 5

what are 3 strengths in brain injuries and disorders?

Answer 5

a few extreme cases do show brain injury leads to changes on behaviour including criminality, some correlation between abnormal EEG readings and psychopathy.

Question 6

what are 3 limitations?

Answer 6

crimes caused by brain injury or diseases are rare (original personality more important), abnormal EEG not necessarily the cause and not found in all psychopaths, prisoners higher likelihood of brain injury may be affect of criminality not cause - e.g getting into fights

Question 7

what is EEG?

Answer 7

electroencephalogram - measures brain activity

Question 8

what is testosterone?

Answer 8

male sex hormone linked to aggression, murder and rape

Question 9

what is the environmental factors as a criticism?

Answer 9

biology may give potentially criminal characteristics but need environmental trigger too

Question 10

what is a sample bias as a criticism?

Answer 10

only studying criminals means we don’t know about those who got away - can’t generalise

Question 11

what is a gender bias as a criticism?

Answer 11

most biological research only tells us about male criminality

Question 12

what is the idea that crime is a social construct?

Answer 12

biological theories look for universal explanations, but crime varies over time, place and culture