Studies have found a link between damage to the brain’s frontal lobe and changes in the amygdala in criminal serial killers.…
In “Chapter Three: Neuroscience and the Law” by Michael Gazzaniga and Megan S. Steven they discuss whether a person “knowingly” commits a crime or not, using the help of neuroscience. Using neuroscience in criminal justice helps to understand the relationship between human behavior and the brain. According to Gazzaniga and Steven, this helps to, “understand how deficiencies in the brain impact violent tendencies and assist the court as they attempt to define terms such as “knowingly” and “intent” (pg.14).…
Biology contributes to killers. As people in today 's society, we are constantly being bombarded with the crazy actions that mankind is capable of. We watch the news and hear about murders, or even read a book about a mysterious killer. As we go through these pieces of reality, one can 't help but be struck by the thought--what causes a person to act so violently? There have been many studies done to try and find an answer. For a crime such as serial killing, there are two thoughts. The first idea is that serial killing is caused by an abnormality in the frontal lobe of the brain. The second idea is that serial killers are bred by circumstance which means they have certain genes also known as the negative gene that makes them prone to becoming a killer.…
Their studies had even fewer participants than Macdonald’s original study; the FBI only used 36 murderers, 25 of which were serial killers, and no non-violent criminals as controls. Even with this small amount of data theories were developed and articles published. They did, however, add some subject background data that may provide further clues to predictors. They found most, three quarts, had single and/or indifferent parents growing up, three quarters had atypical sexual desires, and that three quarters had been abused (Brice,…
In his essay "Violent Media is Good for Kids" Gerard Jones states that parents try to shield their children from violence but in reality they keep them from self realization. In the analysis, Jones uses examples from his life experiences and quotes from a professional in child behavior. His argument, however, is incorrect and his support for his argument plays mostly on emotions and no statistical evidence to support his claims.…
Many of the most watched television shows have a basis of crime, and murderers are almost always involved in these shows. What is rarely explored in these shows however is how the psychopathic killers become this way. Neuroscientist and Professor Jim Fallon has been studying the brains of psychopathic killers. He has developed three factors based on analyzing a plethora of brains to determine how psychopathic killers come to be. What this lecture helps open for exploration is why places with a small amount of violence stay that way, and violent places continue to produce killers.…
Dahmer, a notorious serial killer and sex offender, was charged with murder of seventeen men. Clearly, his capability of committing such heinous crimes pointed towards several mental and personality disorders. His lack of empathy, compulsive behavior, and sadistic tendencies were all tied to antisocial personality disorder. He was also known to be quite persuasive and manipulative, often luring the victims to his home. He showed no remorse while on trial for his crimes, and was eventually sentenced to complete fifteen consecutive life terms. While in custody, he also presented with a confrontational attitude and violent outbursts in jail. All of Dahmer’s behavior, both before and after being caught, exhibited an extreme case of A.P.D. (Strubel) As a result, it is possible to conclude that there is a significant relationship between personality disorders and…
If there was an experiment created where a person was placed in front of a television screen, given a controller and allowed to play a violent first person shooter for an hour, would one feel the urge to shoot a school up? The question is do violent video games lead to violent behaviors? The research shows that violent video games cause heightened aggression, but not a more violent behavior. What trying to argue is that violent video games do not lead to violent behaviors. But on the other hand people think that just because one plays a violent video game, must make them a bad person. Violent video games do not connect to violent behavior because there is no single factor that leads a person to be violent or aggressive, just because…
Most people would like to know why violence among teens is rising. Most people blame parents for the way the child acts. Others blame the kids they’re around. In my opinion, I don’t think neither parents nor peers are to blame. The media is responsible for teen violence in our society.…
According to Paul Thompson, author of the article, “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains”. In the article Thompson notes a massive loss of brain tissue during the teenage years. While research on brain _ tissue loss can help us to understand teens better it cannot be used to excuse their violent or homicidal behavior. But it can be used as evidence that teenagers are not yet adults and the legal system shouldn’t treat them as such…
Although this may be, psychologists have come across numerous cases where they were not able to identify source of actions due to the complexity of their behavior. By identifying the root causes, it was determined that serial killers tend to begin their killings due to drastic change or impact in their environment. As stated by Eric W. Hickey “ Cases of serial killing share commonalities and characteristics; anger, low self esteem, fantasy, facilitation, and objectification of the victims are all common denominators in understanding the etiological rules of serial murder” (Hichey, 2010). The lives of Jeffery Dahmer’s, Albert Fish’s and Mary Bell’s lives were carefully assessed; each suspicious activity that occurred within their life that could have led them to commit such heinous crimes. During psycho-analysis of this topic it can be seen that there are similarities when comparing different killers. Even though there are different reasons as to why they commit such gruesome acts; it can be correlated to some factors such as being a social pariah, ill-treatment as a child, or neglectful…
This applies to different aspects, such as the volume and the activity of the amygdala. Specifically, psychopaths were found to have lower amygdala volume than healthy individuals, even when other factors such as the volume of the entire brain, substance dependence and socioeconomic status were controlled for. Of course, this does not exclude the possibility that another factor could cause or significantly contribute to the lower amygdala volume in the psychopath group. Besides this, the amygdala of psychopaths had some deformities that were not present in the healthy control group. More research could be done on the causes of the deformities, for example, whether they are present at birth or develop over the course of a psychopath’s life. There have also been several studies that have looked into the activity of the amygdala of a psychopath and how this might differ from healthy individuals. Although there are some contradicting findings, with some research claiming lower activity in the amygdala while other researchers have found higher levels of activity in psychopaths, most research seems to suggest lower levels of activity during tasks related to processes involving fear or other emotions. Considering some of the characteristics of psychopaths, lower levels of activity in the amygdala, the brain region responsible for fear processing, would make a lot of sense, as in general, psychopaths have trouble experiencing fear themselves and recognizing it in others. However, a lot more research has to be done, as the research that showed higher levels of amygdala activity during fear conditioning is not the only study that has linked psychopathy to higher amygdala activity. Another study used pictures with emotional imagery to study brain activation and found that in psychopaths the right amygdala showed more activity than it did in healthy individuals…
Naturalism and the environment have the ability to change the brain’s of many lives. “ Murderers from relatively benign backgrounds are more likely to have reduced activity in two key brain areas than murderers from home wracked by conflict, deprivation and abuse,”…
In the article, “Diet of Fish ‘Can Prevent’ Teen Violence” tries to explain how feeding your children a rich diet of fish can prevent them from having violent outbreaks later on in their life. It tries to explain when young children are fed a great deal of omega-3, will help stabilize the frontal cortex of the brain and children will make better decisions with their lives when they are in their late teens and early twenties. They say that these omega-3 fatty acids help teens reduce their urge to have a violent outbreak and they will be more logical.…
Inside the mind of a Serial Killer and the current biological differences between our minds and that of a serial killer.…