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Criminology
Biological Theories
Raine
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Created by
Hannah Martin
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Cards (6)
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