crime - biological (amygdala)

Amygdala explanation and evaluation

Coccaro et al (2007) IED

• investigated effect of amygdala on aggression by studying people with IED

• Participants viewed images of faces whilst undergoing an fMRI scan

• those with IED showed higher amygdala activity than the control group while looking at angry faces

• shows association between aggression and the amygdala

• high realism

IED

• repeated, sudden episodes of impulsive, aggressive, violent behaviour or angry verbal outbursts

• Road rage, domestic abuse, throwing or breaking objects, or other temper tantrums

• These intermittent, explosive outbursts cause you significant distress, negatively impact your relationships, work and school, and they can have legal and financial consequences.​

Yu Gao et al (2010) fear conditioning

• 1795 participants age 3

• put electrodes on their fingers while playing two tones, one being unpleasant

• measured sweat response

• 20 years later they found who’d committed crimes and compared them with noncriminal counterparts

• Found the criminals had been fearless, suggesting an early defect in the amygdala predisposes you to crime

Paulus and Williams (2002) Dark triad

• Machiavellianism

• Narcissism

• Psychopathology

Machiavellianism

• Manipulative

• Exploitive

• focused on own ambitions

• lack of consequence awareness

Narcissism 9 traits

1. grandiose self importance

2. fantasies of unlimited success

3. belief they are unique

4. requires admiration

5. entitled

6. exploitive

7. lacks empathy

8. envious

9. arrogance

psychopathy

• manipulative

• lack of empathy

• can be considered charming and trustworthy

• ability to minimise risks when committing crime as self preservation

• can hold relationships and are often well educated

Glenn et al (2009) psychopathy

• 17 participants with psychopathy

• fMRI scan whilst making judgments on dilemmas

• results showed association between reduced amygdala activity and psychopathy during moral judgment decision making.

Pardini (2014) longitudinal study

• 503 males who’d participated in a study age 6/7, 20 years ago

• identified subgroup of 56 men who’d shown aggressive behaviour since childhood including serious crime

• fMRI used to measure amygdala volume

• high level of aggression = lower amygdala volume

Raine et al (1997)

murderers who showed reactive aggression had high glucose metabolism in their amygdala but low metabolism in the prefrontal cortex

Therefore it’s unlikely to be the amygdala alone