neural

• antisocial personality disorder (APD)


  APD is associated with a lack of empathy and reduced emotional responses. Many convicted offenders have a diagnosis of APD
• less activity in prefrontal cortex = less emotional regulation


  - Raine et al (2000) found reduced activity and an 11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex of people with APD compared to controls

  - this is the part of the brain that regulates emotional behaviour
• mirror neurons may not always be turned on
• - Keysers (2011) found that only when offenders were asked to empathise did they show an empathy reaction (controlled by mirror neurons in the brain)

  - this suggests APD individuals do experience empathy, but may have a neural 'switch' that turns on and off

  - in a normally-functioning brain the empathy switch is permanently on
• strength


  P - support for the link between crime and the frontal lobe

  E - Kandel and Freed (1989) researched people with frontal lobe damage, including the prefrontal cortex

  E - they found evidence of impulsive behaviour, emotional instability and inability to learn from mistakes

  L - this supports the idea that structural abnormalities in the brain are a causal factor in offending behaviour
• limitation


  P - link between neural differences and APD is complex

  E - Farrington et al (1981) studies adult males with high APD scores. They were raised by a convicted parent and physically neglected

  E - these early experiences may have caused APD and associated neural differences e.g. reduced activity in the frontal lobe due to trauma

  L - this suggests that the relationship between neural differences, APD and offending is complex and there may be intervening variables
• limitation


  P - biological determinisim

  E - the biological approach suggests offending behaviour is determined by factors which cannot be controlled so no responsibility

  E - however, justice system is based on individual responsibility. The identification if possible biological precursors to crime complicates this principle

  L - this suggests we should 'excuse' some people but ultimately this is not possible because then many could claim no responsibility