What makes a criminal ?

Question 1

What are the 2 physiological explanations of criminality ?

Answer 1

Brain dysfunction- Raine et al
Genetics- Brunner

Question 2

What are the 3 non-physiological explanations of criminality ?

Answer 2

Upbringing- Farrington
Learning- Sutherland
Cognitive- Palmer & Hollin’s

Question 2

What was the aim of Raine’s study ?

Answer 2

The aim was to build on previous research.

Question 3

What did Raine hypothesis ?

Answer 3

1.Seriously violent individuals pleading NGRI have relatively localised brain dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus- linked to violence.
2.Seriously violent individuals pleading NGRI show no dysfunction in cerebellum, midbrain ,caudate- linked to psychiatric conditions.

Question 4

What method did Raine use ?

Answer 4

Quasi experiment

Question 5

What variables did Raine use ?

Answer 5

IV- whether the participant was a normal non-murderer or a murderer who plead not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI)
DV-whether the participant showed evidence of brain dysfunction

Question 6

Who were the sample in Raines study ?

Answer 6

41 individuals (39m 2f) who were tried in California- 6 schizophrenic
Control group- 41 individuals matched on age and gender and 6 schizophrenics

Question 7

Outline the procedure from Raines study ?

Answer 7

Ppts were injected with a glucose tracer then performed the CPT for 32 mins then a PET scan was carried out. They were allowed to practise the CPT 10 mins before the injection so there ID were reduced. No ppts were medicated and NGRI were kept unmedicated 2 weeks before the scan.

Question 7

What were the findings in Raine ?

Answer 7

Murderers showed lower glucose metabolism then the controls- prefrontal cortex, posterior parietal cortex and corpus callosum.
They also showed asymmetrical levels of activity in the limbic system.

Question 8

Evaluations of Raine

Question 9

Practical applications of Raine