Genetic and Neural explanations

• The genetic explanation shows criminality as inherited as genetics predispose individuals to crime
• Tiihonen (2014) hypothesised 2 candidate genes for crime through a study of 900 Finnish offenders who were 13 times more likely to offend with the MAOA and CDH13 genes
• The MAOA gene controls dopamine and serotonin levels and is linked to aggressive behaviour
• the CDH13 gene has been linked to substance abuse and attentional deficit disorder
• The genetic explanation shows criminality as a Diathesis-stress model
• The neural explanation for crime focuses on how neurotransmitters react with different areas of the brain and nervous system to cause criminality
• neural explanations often link criminality and anti-social personality disorder as it is associated with a lack of empathy which is a characteristic commonly found in offenders
• Raine (2000) show criminals as having lower levels of activity in their prefrontal cortex EG an 11% reduction in grey matter
• Individuals with anti-social personality disorder may experience empathy but more sporadically than others
• Lange (1930) who studied 13 monozygotic and 17 dizygotic twin pairs where at least one had served a prison sentence and found monozygotic twins were more likely to have a co-twin who had also served a prison sentence
• Christianson (1977) studied 3,500 twin pairs in Denmark and found a 35% concordance rate for monozygotic twins committing crime compared to 16% for dizygotic twins
• Strength; Crowe (1972) found adopted people whose biological mother had committed crime were 50% more likely to offend showing it is not environmental but genetic
• Weakness; research into candidate genes is in its early stages
• weakness; twin studies are only correlational
• Weakness; Findlay (2011) claims crime cannot be genetic as it is socially constructed
• Weakness; socially sensitive as it can allow offenders to excuse their crimes