biological explanations - genetic and neural

• Evidence suggests there may be neural difference in the brains of criminals and non criminals

  Most of the evidence in this area has investigated individuals diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) – formally known as psychopathy.

  APD is associated with reduced emotional responses, a lack of empathy for feelings of others, and is a condition that characteristics many convicted criminals.
• Raine -

  Across many studies of the APD brain, Raine found that individuals with anti-social personalities had reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex (part of the brain which regulates emotional behaviour).
• Mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that fires when you do an action, and also when you simply watch someone else doing the same action. They help us understand and interpret the actions of others.
• Keyers (2011)

  Found that only when criminals are asked to empathise did they show an empathy reaction

  Suggests APD individuals do experience empathy, but have a ‘switch’ which can turn it on or off, unlike a ‘normal’ brain whose mirror neurons are constantly turned on.
• Genetic explanations for crime suggest that offenders inherit a gene/combination of genes that predispose them to crime

  
• Genetic analysis of 900 offenders revealed 2 genes that may be associated with violent crime:

  • MAOA gene – controls serotonin and dopamine (linked to aggression)
  • CDH13 – linked to substance abuse and ADHD

  High-risk combination led to individuals being 13x more likely to have a history of violent disorder
• If genes have an influence on offending, this is likely to be partly moderated by environmental factors

  A tendency to criminal behaviour may come about through:

  • Genetic predisposition (diathesis)
  • Biological/psychological stressor (e.g. criminal role model, upbringing etc.)
• weakness-

  A key methodological issue with the use of twin studies as a means of investigating the genetic basis of behaviour is that such studies assume that the only difference between twins is the amount of genetic information they share. This is an incorrect assumption and would be better addressed through the use of an interactionist approach. This suggests that causal conclusions about the genetic basis of criminality have incorrectly been reached.
• strength -

  Strong support for the use of a diathesis-stress model in explaining criminality comes from Mednick et al (1984) who concluded that “siblings adopted separately into 1 different homes tended to be concordant for convictions”. This supports the idea that criminality is only likely to be an outcome if a genetic susceptibility is paired with environmental (criminal) stressors, as predicted by the diathesis-stress model.
• weakness -

  The focus on the role of genetics and neural activities as a means of explaining criminal behaviour suffers from the problem of biological reductionism, as suggested by Katz et al (2007). Although it does appear that criminality runs in families, so do other risk factors associated with criminality Therefore, it is important not to stereotype children from criminal families as ‘criminal’ as this may lead to the realisation of self-fulfilling prophecies