Neurocriminology is an emerging sub-discipline of biocriminology and criminology that applies brain imaging techniques and principles from neuroscience to understand, predict, and prevent crime. The main idea behind neurocriminology (also known as neurolaw) is that the condition of an individual's brain often needs to be included in the analysis for a complete understanding. This can include conditions such as brain tumors, psychoses, sociopathy, sleep walking, and many more. Deviant brain theories have always been part of biocriminology, which explains crime with biological reasons.
Origin
The origins of neurocriminology go back to one of the founders of modern criminology, 19th-century Italian psychiatrist and prison doctor Cesare Lombroso, whose beliefs that the crime originated from brain abnormalities were partly based on phrenological theories about the shape and size of the human head. Lombroso conducted a postmortem on a serial killer and rapist, who had an unusual indentation at the base of the skull. Lombroso discovered a hollow part in the killer's brain where the cerebellum would be. Lombroso's theory was that crime originated in part from abnormal brain physiology and that violent criminals were throwbacks to less evolved human types identifiable by ape-like physical characteristics. Criminals, he believed, could be identified by physical traits, such as a large jaw and sloping forehead.
Understanding
Recent discoveries in neuroscience are relevant to all stages of criminal justice. It is increasingly possible to predict whether a brain is predisposed to criminal activity, and neuroscience is making steps toward predicting what brain activity in criminals correlates with reoffending . A 2013 study concluded that criminals with diminished activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, a brain region associated with executive function, were 4.3 times more likely to reoffend while on parole . With the increasingly predictive power of neuroscience, it is necessary to examine the ethical implications of allowing neuroscience into courtrooms.
Neuroscience of Psychopathy
There are two notable neuroanatomical structures that are deviant in psychopathic brains—the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the amygdala. The PFC is responsible for executive control, namely inhibition of inappropriate impulses, while the amygdala is critically important in fear conditioning . Fear conditioning is tested in lab animals by exposing an animal to an unpleasant or painful situation. The animal is successfully conditioned if it then fears the place in which it experienced the discomfort or any associated stimuli.
Fear conditioning is a simplified version of what happens when people socialize – children learn to avoid a social faux pas by associating social misconduct with discomfort . The amygdala and the PFC are critical to this learning process . A lab rat with a lesioned (surgically removed) amygdala completely loses the ability to learn the associations in fear conditioning. The PFC is involved in fear conditioning in a more subtle way, working by inhibiting the socially unacceptable impulses that have been associated with discomfort. People with APD (antisocial personality disorder) have been found to have an amygdala that is up to 18% smaller than normal, and studies have found that the psychopathic PFC has a 11% reduction in gray matter. These findings point to the theory that APD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that interferes with a person’s ability to experience and learn from negative experiences, specifically negative social feedback . Raine and his colleagues speculate, “Poor conditioning is theorized to be associated with poor development of the conscience.”
References
Rafter, Nicole Hahn (2008). The Criminal Brain: Understanding Biological Theories of Crime. New York University Press. p. 217.
Eagleman, David (7 June 2011). "The Brain on Trial". The Atlantic.
Rafter, Nicole Hahn (2008). The Criminal Brain: Understanding Biological Theories of Crime. New York University Press. pp. 19–121.
A., Raine, The Anatomy of Violence (Random House LLC, 2013).
E. Lerner, Can Science Predict Criminal Behavior? (2011).
A. Raine, The Criminal Mind (2013).
R. Nuzzo Brain Scans Can Predict Who Is Likely to Reoffend (2013).
A. Raine, Reduced Prefrontal Gray Matter Volume and Reduced Autonomic Activity in Antisocial Personality Disorder (2000). Arch Gen Psychiatry.
Y. Yang, et al., Localizations of Deformations Within the Amygdala in Individuals With Psychopathy (2009). Arch Gen Psychiatry.
https://sites.dartmouth.edu/dujs/2013/11/19/neurocriminology-the-disease-behind-the-crime/
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