these findings provide preliminary evidence that murderers pleading NGRI have diferent brain functioning to normal individuals.
reduced activity in the limbic system, e.g prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus and thalamus
abnormal emotional responses, and the failure of violent offenders to learn from experience
damage to left angular gyrus
low verbal IQ's and poor school performance
dominance of right hemisphere
lack of control over expressing violence
raine emphasises that these results demonstrate that:
violent behaviour is not determined by biology alone; clearly social, psychological, cultural and situational factors play important roles in predisposition to violence.
the results do not show that murderers pleading NGRI are not responsible for their actions, nor that PET scans be used to diagnose individuals.
brain dysfunction doesn't cause violence - it may even be that brain dysfunction is an effect of violence.
