Biological Explinations

Question 1

Twin studies

Answer 1

Lange (1930).

1. 13 MZ and 17 DZ where one of the twins had serve prison time.
2. 10 of the MZ, 2 of DZ had co-twins also in prison
3. Genetic evidence

Question 2

Role of frontal lobe (to do with crime)

Answer 2

1. Impulse control
2. Empathy
3. Decisions
4. Emotions

Question 3

Adoption studies

Answer 3

Crowe (1972).
Found adopted children with a criminal parent had 50% chance of having criminal record by 18.
Adopted children without criminal mother only 5%

Question 4

Candidate gene study

Answer 4

1. Genome analysis of 900 offenders
2. MAOA (dopamine and serotonin) and CDH13 (substance abuse and ADHD)
3. high risk genetic combination are 13 times more likely to be criminal

Question 5

What cognitive features can an abnormality on the MAOA gene associated with

Answer 5

1. Impulse control
2. Empathy
3. Decisions

Question 6

Outline ADP

Answer 6

1. ADP (antisocial personality disorder) formerly psychopath
2. Charactised by reduced emotion and lack of empathy

Question 7

Diathesis-stress model

Answer 7

A tendency towards criminality is likely a combination of a genetic predisposition and a psychological trigger

Question 8

Mirror neurones and APD

Answer 8

1. When watching a film, empathy mirror neurones were only active when asked specifically to empathise
2. Not without empathy but not switched on like in normal brains.

Question 9

What did Raine find in APD brains

Answer 9

11% reduction of volume of grey matter compared to controls

Question 10

Problem with twin studies

Answer 10

1. Pool control, MZ or DZ classification based on appearance (low IValitidy)
2. Small samples
3. Most twins reared in same environment (confounding variable) as concordance rates due to environmental

Question 11

Support for diathesis-stress model of crime

Answer 11

Mednick et al. (1984)

1. Studied 13,000 danish adoptees
2. Where neither biological or adopted parents convicted: 13.5% had CR
3. 20% either bio parent
4. 24.5% when both adoptive and bio

Question 12

Problems with adoption studies

Answer 12

Children not separated straight away and much of life spent with bio parents anyway

Question 13

Brunner

Answer 13

Bruner.

1. Studied Dutch family with high rates of violent crime
2. Men found to have faulty MAOA (enzyme) regulator gene
3. Affected neurotransmitters

Question 14

Biological reductionism/ determinism

Answer 14

Reductionism:

1. Explaining crime at a neural level is too simplistic
2. Although time runs in families so does social deprivation and poverty
3. Also non 100% concordance shows not entirely environmental

Determinism

1. Raised ethical issues if it is fact true that criminality is determined by biology
2. Criminal system based off free will