classic study: raine et al (1997)

• raine et al (1997) - aim

  to show that murders pleading NGRI (not guilty for reasons of insanity) would show dysfunction in the areas of the brain associated with violence such as prefrontal cortex and amygdala
• raine et al (1997) - experimental group

  41 murders (39m/2f) pleading NGRI due to reasons such as SZ, brain injury and substance abuse

  they had a mean age of 31.3 years
• raine et al (1997) - control group

  41 people (39m/2f) matched with the experimental group according to age, gender and diagnostic of SZ

  they had a mean age of 31.7
• raine et al (1997) - procedure

  participants were screened for their general health medical history and had to undertake psychiatric interviews

  all participants were mediation free 2 weeks prior to the brain scan and consented to take part

  participants worked on a continuous performance task (CPT) focusing on a presentation of blurred numbers

  they had a 10 min trial of the CPT ensuring they knew what to do

  then injected with a radioactive tracker and completed the CPT for 32 mins to allow the tracker to metabolise in active areas of the brain

  after task they had a PET scan of the brain
• raine et al (1997) - results

  NGRI's showed lower glucose metabolism in the prefrontal cortex (self-control remorse) than the control group

  lower glucose metabolism in the parietal areas (verbal ability and educational under achievement) than control group

  lower glucose metabolism in the corpus callosum (passing info between hemispheres) than the control group

  asymmetrical glucose metabolism in the amygdala (impulsivity and emotion) with lower activity left and higher activity in the right than the control group

  no difference between the groups in how well they did the task
• raine et al (1997) - conclusion

  deficits in the functioning of the pre-frontal cortex (impulsivity and loss of control), problems with different areas of the limbic system (affecting emotional responses and ability to learn) could explain violent criminals as they are unable to learn from the consequences of their actions

  the asymmetrical functioning of the amygdala and hippocampus may be implicated in misunderstanding of social situations which could also lead to inappropriate responses, aggression and violent behaviour
• raine et al (1997) - strength

  a strength of raines study using PET scans of the NGRI's compared to controls is that brain activity is assessed in a standardised way

  this is a strength because it allows for the procedure to be assessed by different researchers to increase the accuracy of the results when assessing the impact of dysfunction with violence
• raine et al (1997) - weakness

  a weakness of raines study is that the CPT task was used which is artificial and unrealistic of aggression

  therefore has low ecological validity when assessing the brain activity in the NGRI's and control groups as it is not a real representation of how the brain works when committing murder
• raine et al: weakness

  a weakness of raines study is that it only shows a correlation between dysfunction of areas of the brain associated with violence and being a murder but doesn't establish cause and effect

  this is a weakness because raines research cannot be used in society to asses individuals brains who show certain symptoms of aggressive behaviour to then take precautions or carry out treatment such as CBT to help the individuals control their anger to reduce possible murders from occurring
• raine et al: strength

  one strength of raines study is that he used a standardised procedure for all participants as all participants were medication free for two weeks prior to the study and all participants had a 32 minute CPT after their brain scan

  this is a strength as the study is high in reliability as all participants were assessed in the same way and the research can be repeated in the future to test for consistency in findings of brain dysfunction and being a murder