Raine

• Claims

  • physiological theory, Brain Abnormality Theory
  • damage to the prefrontal cortex can alter behaviour and impair impulse control
  • the damage causes people to become more aggressive and violent
• Components

  • used a PET scanner to study the living brains of 41 criminals who pled not guilty by reason of insanity
  • all 41 had prefrontal cortex damage
  • killers who pled not guilty by reason of insanity had significantly different brain functions in a number of areas
• Credibility

  • research can be easily repeated
  • scientific study with objective, qualitative data
  • deterministic
  • reductionist
  • doesn't establish when the damage occured
• Application

  • Donta Page: robbed, raped and killed a young woman, was thrown out of a car window
  • Phineas Gage: changes in personality following a large iron rod piercing his skull and brain
• Refuting Evidence

  • not representative of all crimes
  • doesn't explain the abnormality
  • PET scans weren't very clear
  • can be generalised
• Supporting Evidence

  • Raine and Scerbo: Neurochemical theory
  • Bandura: Social Learning Theory
  • Bufkin and Luttrel 2005: meta-analysis of 17 similar studies and found that they all came to the same conclusion