Key Question

• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) early in life may make adolescent males more likely to engage in offending behaviour during adulthood
• Over 1.6 million people worldwide lose their lives to violence each year, which is a leading cause of death among people between 15-44 years old
• In the general population, men have twice the odds of having TBI compared to women, which could explain why there are more males than females in prison as they are biologically most at risk of being aggressive
• 60% of young adult males in prison have some form of TBI, which suggests this increases criminality and can be used as a predictor of the likelihood of reoffending
• Amygdala


  • If asymmetrical in its functioning, this can lead to aggression as the right is overactive and the left is underactive, then instinctive aggression will occur
• Testosterone


  • Can play a key role in explaining why males can be more aggressive than females
• Prefrontal Cortex


  • If damaged, can cause poor decision-making which can lead to aggression without considering the consequences
• Evolution


  • Suggests males have evolved to be bigger and stronger to attract a mate and pass on their genes, supporting the view that competitive aggression is occurring for this drive to biologically reproduce
• Charles Whitman had a tumour pressing on his limbic system, which supports the view that brain areas responsible for emotions can increase in violence, suggesting nature is a cause
• Ginger et al. (2011) found that when giving females from the general population a dose of testosterone, they behave more aggressively and socially, suggesting testosterone is not the sole cause of aggression
• Brain scans found lower glucose metabolism in the pre-frontal cortex in people pleading not guilty for reasons of insanity compared to a control group, suggesting the irregular functioning of the brain causes aggression
• Biological reductionism can oversimplify the explanation of aggression to only biological factors such as evolving aggression to find a mate, which may not be a full accurate explanation for all possible reasons why individuals become aggressive, such as upbringing
• If aggression is found to be caused by nature


  It can be useful to predict when people will be aggressive, especially those with TBI, in order to reduce the likelihood of a future offence occurring
• If aggression is found to be caused by nature


  It may not be useful as it is not a clear-cut opinion whether people are born aggressive or learn/are taught to be aggressive