issues and debates

• methodological issues

  • ethnocentric - California, not representative of all murderers brains
  • validity - hard to make comparisons about murderers brains
  • quantitative data - objective, increases validity
• issue and debates

  • nature/nurture - both play a role (Raine 50/50)
  • individual/situational - biological causes are unique to the individual, social causes are situational
  • determinism - biology may be responsible, but free will is an important legal argument
  • social sensitivity - risk of labelling people in poverty
  • reductionist - too simplistic to only blame biological factors, crime has more holistic causes