'Biological key' to unlocking crime
Pastor Dale Morgan
*'Biological key' to unlocking crime*
By Professor Adrian Raine
Professor of Psychology, University of Southern California
Connections between crime and biological make-up are increasingly
becoming a hot topic for discussion. Two personal and opposing accounts
argue the case for and against.
Professor Adrian Raine sets out his views below.
Read Professor Steven Rose's alternative view
Professor Adrian Raine
Professor Raine: "The evidence is too strong to ignore"
Until recently it was thought that the causes of crime lay just in
social factors like poverty and unemployment.
Yet repeat offending criminal behaviour is a clinical disorder, with
brain impairments playing a key role.
New research is now showing that genetic and biological factors play an
equal, if not greater, role than social factors in crime causation.
Within this new field of biocriminology, brain imaging findings are
revealing dramatic new insights into the criminal mind.
There are now 71 brain imaging studies showing that murderers,
psychopaths, and individuals with aggressive, antisocial personalities
have poorer functioning in the prefrontal cortex - that part of the
brain involved in regulating and controlling emotion and behaviour.
More dramatically, we now know that the brains of criminals are
physically different from non-criminals, showing an 11% reduction in the
volume of grey matter (neurons) in the prefrontal cortex.
'Bad brains'
Violent offenders just do not have the emergency brakes to stop their
runaway aggressive behaviour.
Literally speaking, bad brains lead to bad behaviour.
Dramatic advances are also being made in the areas of molecular and
behaviour genetics.
Over 100 twin and adoption studies have convincingly shown that genetic
processes account for 50% of antisocial and criminal behaviour.
Of the remaining half that is environmental, biology accounts for part
of this. For example, physical child abuse can cause brain damage that
in turn results in antisocial, aggressive behaviour.
Genetic processes are also at play in shaping aggressive behaviour in
children.
There is exciting new evidence that an abnormality in one specific gene
(monoamine oxidase A), when combined with child abuse, predisposes to
violent offending in adulthood.
In a similar fashion, birth complications, when combined with maternal
rejection in the first year of life, results in higher violence at age 34.
Breakthroughs
The biological and genetic findings are now incontrovertible; the
evidence is too strong to ignore.
These new breakthroughs have important implications for crime prevention.
One of the reasons why we have repeatedly failed to stop crime is
because we have systematically ignored the biological and genetic
contributions to crime causation.
We instead need to focus efforts on new interventions that will improve
brain structure and function.
Boys on a housing estate
The biological and genetic findings are now incontrovertible
Professor Adrian Raine
Have your say on the issues
New research has just shown that childhood malnutrition is linked to
poor brain functioning (low IQ) and conduct disorder in early adulthood.
Giving three-year-olds better nutrition (and more physical exercise) for
just two years results in better brain functioning (EEG) at age 11, and
a 35% reduction in crime 20 years later at age 23.
Prisoners given fish oil (rich in omega-3, a long-chain fatty acid that
is critical for brain structure and function) show reduced aggressive
and antisocial behaviour.
Low physiological arousal (e.g. low sweat and heart rates) is a
well-replicated risk factor for crime and violence, but stimulants
(drugs which increase arousal) are effective in reducing aggressive and
antisocial behaviour in children.
Future
Where will this new biological approach take us?
If we really want to stop crime, the best investment society can make is
to intervene very early on.
Better prenatal and perinatal health care, better nutrition early in
life, and medication for severely aggressive children can be implemented
right now.
The next decade will reveal new discoveries regarding specific genes
that cause violent behaviour, and these findings could result in new
drugs to correct the neurotransmitter brain abnormalities that cause
violence.
In 50 years time, will we be conducting reparative brain surgery on
prisoners to correct the faulty neural circuits that give rise to violence?
Rocket science perhaps - but there is an uncanny habit for today's
science fiction to become tomorrow's reality.